Social inequality is a trap for the development of Latin America and the Caribbean and limits the exercise of people’s rights. This was one of the topics highlighted during the Sixth Meeting of the Presiding Officers of the Regional Conference on Social Development of Latin America and the Caribbean, a subsidiary body of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), which took place this Thursday October 31, 2024 in Barbados.
The meeting takes place within the framework of the XVI Ministerial Forum on Development of Latin America and the Caribbeanco-organized and sponsored by the Government of Barbados with the support of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Latin America and the Caribbean and ECLAC (October 30-November 1, 2024).
Ministers of Social Development and equivalent entities from Latin America and the Caribbean spoke in Bridgetown, capital of Barbados, about the challenges associated with the implementation of the Regional Agenda for Inclusive Social Development (approved in 2019) and about the messages that the region to the Second World Summit on Social Development to be held in 2025.
The meeting was opened by José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, Executive Secretary of ECLAC; Javiera Toro, Minister of Social Development and Family of Chile, the country that holds the Presidency of the Regional Conference on Social Development of Latin America and the Caribbean; Kirk Humphrey, Minister of People Empowerment and Aging Affairs of Barbados; and Michelle Muschett, Director of the UNDP Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean. Also speaking at the session were Wellington Dias, Minister of Development and Social Assistance, Family and Fight against Hunger of Brazil; and Yorleny León Marchena, Minister of Human Development and Social Inclusion of Costa Rica.
“The Second World Summit on Social Development, to be held in 2025, constitutes a fundamental milestone to review the path traveled, analyze the present and adopt decisions for a future with less inequality and greater mobility and social cohesion. In it, the region will have the opportunity to speak out, raising its needs, priorities and proposals and, therefore, we see this Sixth Meeting of the Board of Directors as a key space to share ideas about the social challenges facing the region and the world and define common messages,” said José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs.
At the meeting, the Minister of Social Development and Family of Chile reported on the progress in the implementation of the resolution agreed in the Fifth Regional Conference on Social Development of Latin America and the Caribbean held in Santiago in October 2023 and addressed the region’s urgent challenges in achieving social development, emphasizing that “there can be no economic growth or environmental protection without a deep commitment to inclusion, well-being and social equality, such as proposed by the 2030 Agenda”.
“The social policies we adopt must centrally consider the perspective of care. With the aging population, the care crisis is deepening and becoming a factor of greater inequality. In Chile we want to face this challenge with the implementation of a national system of support and care,” he said.
For his part, Kirk Humphrey, Minister of People Empowerment and Aging Affairs of Barbados, recalled the climate and financial vulnerabilities facing the Caribbean subregion and stressed the need to ensure “shared prosperity” that reaches especially the people more vulnerable. “Crises are part of the reality of the Caribbean,” said Humphrey, calling for comprehensive solutions based on regional cooperation.
“We must act urgently and in a coordinated manner to ensure that all countries in our region, regardless of their level of development, can access the opportunities to build a more equitable and resilient future. There is room for transformation and to reimagine cooperation. UNDP stands ready to support the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean on this path, working hand in hand with ECLAC, the broader United Nations family and other strategic partners,” said Michelle Muschett, Regional Director for Latin America. and the Caribbean of the United Nations Development Programme.
Subsequently, Alberto Arenas de Mesa, Director of the Social Development Division of ECLAC, presented the document Reducing inequality and moving towards inclusive social development in Latin America and the Caribbean: challenges, priorities and messages for the Second World Summit on Social Development.
The report presents the evolution of the regional and global social agenda since the 1995 World Summit on Social Development, reviews the critical nodes of inclusive social development and proposes a series of priorities and messages that Latin America and the Caribbean can take to the Second World Summit on Social Development in 2025.
“Thirty years after the World Summit on Social Development held in Copenhagen, the region shows a history of policies, institutions and results that reveal the growing centrality of inclusive social development. However, great challenges persist and new risks emerge, which require new commitments and better policies to achieve inclusion and the exercise of social rights, as proposed by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,” the publication summarizes.
In Barbados, ECLAC put at least 10 messages and priorities for countries’ consideration to bring a single voice to the global event in Qatar:
1. Inclusive social development contributes to economic and productive development and environmental protection, and vice versa.
2. Social inequality is a trap for development and limits the exercise of rights.
3. Inequality reduces social cohesion, fractures social pacts and erodes democratic governance.
4. Social inequality is multidimensional and needs to be measured as such.
5. To achieve inclusive social development, institutional capacities and governance of social policies need to be strengthened.
6. Social protection systems must be universal, comprehensive, sustainable and resilient.
7. Labor inclusion is the master key to reducing inequalities.
8. A minimum standard of investment in non-contributory social protection is necessary to eradicate poverty.
9. Social dialogue and fiscal pacts are essential to achieve inclusive social development and its financial sustainability.
10. The Regional Agenda for Inclusive Social Development is a renewed framework for multilateral cooperation.
“At ECLAC we are at your disposal to advance the construction of quality social policies, as proposed by our Regional Agenda for Inclusive Social Development. In particular, let us not stop giving priority to the strengthening of social institutions and the generation of technical, operational, political and prospective capacities (TOPP) of the institutions that allow us to undertake important transformations, hand in hand with harmonious governance that incorporates and articulates to all the actors,” concluded José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs.
With Chile in the Presidency, the Board of Directors is also made up of Argentina, Barbados, Brazil, Costa Rica, Honduras, Panama and Venezuela in the vice presidencies.
To date, there have been five editions of the Regional Conference on Social Development in Latin America and the Caribbean. The first in Lima in November 2015, the second in Montevideo in October 2017, the third in Mexico City in October 2019, the Fourth, virtual, with Antigua and Barbuda in the Presidency, in October 2021, and the most recent in Chile in 2023. The Sixth Meeting of the Regional Conference on Social Development of Latin America and the Caribbean will take place in 2025 in Brazil.
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