High-Level officials from the region lauded the contribution to the definition of the post-2015 development agenda made by the proposal based on compacts for equality, as presented this week by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).
The proposal of social compacts for structural change with a view to increasing equality in the region is contained in the document Compacts for Equality: Towards a Sustainable Future, which is being disseminated by this United Nations regional commission at its Thirty-fifth session which came to its end Friday in Lima.
As she opened the high-level dialogue on Friday, Peru's Foreign Affairs Minister, Eda Rivas, underlined ECLAC proposals aim to transform growth into truly sustainable development, and stated the post-2015 agenda should include aims that are universal but based on countries' levels of development.
This agenda should begin to be implemented after the 2015 deadline set for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
The Foreign Minister of El Salvador, Jaime Miranda, referred to the fact that intergovernmental negotiations on the post-2015 agenda began in September in New York, and called on the negotiating teams from the region's countries to disseminate the proposals from the Thirty-fifth session of ECLAC to other States and representatives from the private sector and civil society, in order to identify allies that can help to implement them.
According to the Colombian Foreign Affairs Minister, María Ángela Holguín, "The ECLAC position paper makes a huge contribution to the construction and subsequent implementation of the post-2015 agenda". She said that there should be a small number of measurable and brief objectives that should relate to, inter alia, the financial system, international trade, migratory processes and climate change.
Mexican Foreign Minister, José Antonio Meade, declared that ECLAC was proposing compacts for the labour market, the financial system, infrastructure, productivity and energy.
He said that Mexico had implemented reforms on these very issues, and announced his country's willingness to be the Member State to host the next session of ECLAC in 2016.
The Commission's proposal further explores the idea of equality addressed in the documents presented at the two previous sessions in Time for Equality: Closing Gaps, Opening Trails (2010, Brasilia), and Structural Change for Equality: An Integrated Approach to Development (2012, San Salvador).
(END) INT/LOG
Published: 5/9/2014