The establishment, implementation and continuity of public policies is a priority to make social welfare a reality in the Latin American and Caribbean region, said Roberto Valent, regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean, in an interview with the United Nations Information Center in Mexico. the Caribbean of the United Nations Development Coordination Office.
According to Valent, in order to achieve social well-being, strong social protection policies focused on people’s needs: “focused on the healthnot only as a service, but as a fundamental human right, that is, quality and inclusive health, as well as a education also of quality and transformative”.
Likewise, the regional director assured that the United Nations, with its different agencies, funds and programs, supports States and societies in the socioeconomic dimension, in the preservation of the environment and biodiversity “which is an enormous wealth of the region, and at the same time it is a global public good that Latin America and the Caribbean is protecting and preserving”.
The objective is that these dimensions support people through decent jobs as part of sustainable production systems.
Social well-being, a priority for the UN in Latin America and the Caribbean
Sustainable development
Roberto Valent explained that the work of the United Nations in the Latin American and Caribbean region is based on the 2030 Agenda and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals. However, the basis of the entire UN strategic planning process in each country is found in the Cooperation Frameworks.
“Our work is part of the 2030 Agenda, but it has to land at the country level and it is within the framework of national strategies that we clearly anchor ourselves around the three key elements of development: social, economic and environmental. But all this in a governance and institutional framework that is important to be able to sustain development, since this process requires national leadership”, he explained.
The United Nations in Latin America and the Caribbean accompanies national leadership, be it at the level of the State and the three powers, executive, legislative and judicial, as well as civil society, through economic and trade unions, among others.
“Working with the different sectors is where we achieve coherence in the very elaboration of the Cooperation Frameworks, of the strategies of the United Nations System. In all countries we have strategies and plans aligned with the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals, and with national programs and policies,” said Valent.
The official highlighted, among the main achievements in the region, United Nations coordination and support in response to the COVID-19 pandemica moment in which States and societies around the world needed clear, key, immediate and effective support.
In Latin America and the Caribbean, the UN made available to people and governments, in a first stage, resources to save lives.
Roberto Valent, regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean of the United Nations Development Coordination Office.
Strengthen health and education systems
Subsequently, the organization’s work has focused on socioeconomic recovery, such as addressing the effects of the pandemic on students, who were unable to be in school, as well as strengthening education systems and health systems in order to to protect and support people, particularly those most affected by the pandemic.
“That was the key moment in which the United Nations System demonstrated its harmonized and effective capacity to support States,” said the regional director, who added that independent surveys showed that more than 90% of UN member states They appreciated the work of the Organization and that of its agencies, funds, and programs that established the necessary synergies to face the challenges at a time of global crisis.
According to Valent, the UN continues to bet on carrying out key actions in Latin American and Caribbean countries that require support.
“We are working to help Haiti overcome the crisis and the ongoing humanitarian emergency in which it finds itself, and that is afflicting people, young people, girls, women, men, people who need to live in a context of peace”, he indicated.
Valent concluded by saying that the United Nations is committed to accompanying countries in promoting major energy transitions, so that they are fair and ensure that there is distribution and access to it for all people.
Likewise, he stressed that more efforts are being made in the economic and productive transitions that must be promoted by the States in alliance with the economic unions, employers, and workers.
“We believe that this is exactly where the accent must be placed because if a strengthened social protection system and services and basic social rights are required, then robustness is also required from the fiscal point of view, and this entails a strong productive economic system. and decent jobs,” he concluded.
