(9 February 2010) The lower the educational level of youths, the more difficult it is for them to access quality and highly-productive jobs, especially among young women, stated ECLAC's Deputy Executive Secretary, Antonio Prado, during the II Latin America and Caribbean - European Union Forum (LAC-EU) taking place in Lima, Peru.
The Forum is being held from February 8-10 under the theme "Promoting decent work for youths. New capabilities for new jobs", and participants include government ministers and other high ranking officials from a dozen countries of the region and Europe, as well as repr…
(10 November 2010) The urgent need to close equality gaps in Latin America and the Caribbean should be complemented by the imperative of attaining low-carbon sustainable development, stated ECLAC Executive Secretary Alicia Bárcena today in Germany.
The high-ranking United Nations official participated in the Latin American and the Caribbean-European Union Forum (LAC-EU): Fiscal Policy and an Environmentally Sustainable Economy in the Context of Climate Change taking place in Berlin. The event was convened by the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) of Germany, the Min…
(26 October 2010) Government officials and representatives of international agencies and civil society will gather from 21-23 November in Lima, Peru for the Third Ministerial Conference on the Information Society of Latin America and the Caribbean.
At this forum, ECLAC member countries will approve a new regional plan of action called eLAC2015, which conceives information and communications technologies (ICTs) as tools for achieving economic development with innovation and equality.
The conference will be inaugurated on Monday, 22 November at 9 a.m by the President of Peru, Alan García Pérez, …
(Brasilia, 31 May 2010) Government representatives and prominent international experts participating in the Thirty-third Session of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) discussed today the Commission's proposals set forth in its document Time for Equality. Closing Gaps, Opening Trails.
The main working document in the meeting was presented by ECLAC Executive Secretary Alicia Bárcena during a high-level seminar attended by government officials and representatives of ECLAC member States and international bodies.
Bárcena stressed the need to establish a new fiscal c…
(15 April 2010) Government officials and experts from 19 member countries of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) from the Americas and Europe will meet in Santiago, Chile to examine the development of statistics in the region in censuses, Millennium Development Goals, gender and measuring poverty, among other areas.
During the Ninth Meeting of the Executive Committee of the Statistical Conference of the Americas of ECLAC (SCA-ECLAC), participants will review regional and international cooperation programmes on statistics during 2009-2011 and assess the activitie…
(20 October 2010) Information and communications technologies (ICTs) are changing society and their dissemination has become a vital tool for reducing inequality gaps in Latin American and Caribbean nations, said the Deputy Executive Secretary of ECLAC, Antonio Prado, during the inauguration of a seminar at Commission headquarters.
In the seminar Social Policies and the Information Society: Gaps, Opportunities and Rights, government officials and experts analyzed the contribution of ICTs to countries' social development, particularly in education and health, and how they can be incorporated in…
(18 October 2010) The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) has joined the celebration of World Statistics Day, which, for the first time this 20 October, will raise awareness of the importance of statistics in decision-making, designing national development policies and government transparency.
World Statistics Day was established by resolution of the United Nations General Assembly in June this year under the theme "Celebrating the many achievements of official statistics", acknowledging their importance for national socio-economic development and as a basic pi…
(6 October 2010) "Social equality and economic growth should not be at odds," said the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) Alicia Bárcena today in Madrid.
"Growth with equality requires a macroeconomy that mitigates volatility, foments productivity and favours inclusion and a dynamic production that can close internal and external gaps," she said.
The high-ranking United Nations official presented in Madrid the ECLAC document Time for Equality: Closing Gaps, Opening Trails, published by the Commission this year and released during its Thi…
(8 September 2010) High-ranking officials of international and multilateral organizations agreed that inequality is one of the main obstacles for Latin America and the Caribbean to meet the United Nations Millennium Development Goals by 2015 during a round table held today in Washington, D.C.
The XXV OAS Policy Roundtable discussed the document Achieving the Millennium Development Goals with equality in Latin America and the Caribbean: Progress and challenges, which examines the current state of progress in the region towards the fulfillment of the MDGs. The report was prepared within the fram…
(6 July 2010) The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, and the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Alicia Bárcena, participated this weekend in the 31st Meeting of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and held high-level meetings with several presidents of the subregion.
Bárcena was part of the official delegation of the UN Secretary-General, who was a special guest to the meeting held in Montego Bay, Jamaica.
Ban recognized the commitment and support provided by Caribbean nations to Haiti after the d…
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(24 June 2010) "Today, Bolivia vindicates, advocates and begins to build what we have called a plurinational State, a communitarian social economy and a process of decentralization of power by means of departmental, indigenous and regional autonomies. It is a complex State," said today the Vice President of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, Álvaro García Linera, during a master lecture at ECLAC headquarters in Santiago.
The Bolivian official spoke on Power, the State and Socialism in Contemporary Bolivia in which he addressed the definition of the…
(24 March 2010) José Miguel Insulza, reelected today as Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), will deliver a lecture at the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) on Tuesday, March 30 during a visit to Chile.
Insulza will be welcomed at Commission headquarters by ECLAC Executive Secretary Alicia Bárcena at 11 a.m. before delivering the lecture "The Inter American System: Governance and Democracy".
Government officials, members of the diplomatic corps in Chile, academics and representatives of international organizations and civil society are …
(01 March 2010) The 15 bodies and agencies of the United Nations System in Chile met with representatives of the Chilean government today to coordinate the assistance requested by Chilean officials after an 8.8 magnitude earthquake struck the country on February 27.
During a meeting convened today at the headquarters of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) by its Executive Secretary Alicia Bárcena, Chilean Foreign Ministry representative Gastón Sarmiento informed the directors of U.N. agencies and bodies of the government's main requirements in international assi…
(20 January 2010) Authorities and experts from the region and international organizations will discuss crisis exit strategies and the fiscal policy challenges faced by governments during the XXII Regional Seminar on Fiscal Policy, to open on Tuesday, January 26 at ECLAC headquarters in Santiago, Chile.
Antonio Prado, Deputy Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, will inaugurate the event at 9 a.m. High-level government officials and representatives of international and multilateral organizations will take part in the seminar, which lasts until Janua…
Corruption is a threat to development, democracy and stability. It distorts markets, curbs economic growth and discourages foreign investment. It erodes public services and trust in officials. And it contributes to environmental damage and endangers public health by enabling the illegal dumping of hazardous waste and the production and distribution of counterfeit medicines.
The United Nations Convention against Corruption has helped the public sector to make progress in deterring these crimes. Last year, the Convention's States parties, which now number 148, established…
(6 October 2010) With the high-level conference "The importance of public policies for innovation", the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) will inaugurate next week the School for Policymakers in Science, Technology and Innovation at its headquarters in Santiago, Chile.
The school, to be held from 13 October to 5 November, seeks to provide training for government officials in charge of designing, following up, assessing and implementing policies in science, technology and innovation, and enable the sharing of knowledge and experiences.
It is organized by ECLAC in c…
(12 November 2010) The Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Alicia Bárcena, met this week with government officials of the Federal Republic of Germany, reasserting the importance of German technical cooperation in the region.
In the context of the "Latin America and the Caribbean-European Union Forum (LAC-EU): Fiscal Policy and an Environmentally Sustainable Economy in the Context of Climate Change", Bárcena held meetings with high-ranking government officials of the ministries of Cooperation, Foreign Affairs and Environment, as well as wi…
(19 October 2010) Over the past decade the great majority of Latin American and Caribbean countries made significant progress in the development of statistics in different fields, says a new ECLAC report released today in Santiago, Chile.
The report Development of Official Statistics in the Region was presented by ECLAC Executive Secretary Alicia Bárcena in the context of World Statistics Day, celebrated today in this United Nations regional commission.
The report, which describes the main trends in the development of official statistics in Latin America and the Caribbean and the most importan…
(17 February 2010) The Regional Coordination Mechanism for Latin America and the Caribbean of the United Nations system is meeting in Mexico City today and tomorrow to discuss the Millennium Development Goals, climate change, the political situation in the region and the U.N.'s contribution to regional cooperation.
The meeting was inaugurated today by the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, Asha-Rose Migiro, and ECLAC Executive Secretary Alicia Bárcena at the Commission's subregional headquarters in Mexico.
The Secretary-General of the Organization of American States (OAS), J…
(11 March 2010) Ministerial delegations from Latin America and the Caribbean and the European Union will gather for theV EU-LAC Ministerial Forum on the Information Society to discuss the needs and priorities of the future digital agendas in both regions. The meeting will take place at La Granja de San Ildefonso (Segovia, Spain) on 14-15 March, 2010.
Under the theme "Digital Content for a Digital Society", government delegates will discuss how to adapt their future digital agendas to the specific characteristics of the region so as to contribute to reducing the digital gap and promote ec…