Latin American and Caribbean countries (LAC) have reaffirmed their commitment to the Montevideo Consensus as the basis for a comprehensive road map for national and regional action on population and development matters.
The Montevideo Consensus is the Latin America and Caribbean regional framework for the further implementation of the 1994 Cairo International Conference on Population and Development Programme of Action.
The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) said during the recently held Regional Conference on Population and Development, LAC countries, in their resolutions, “recognized the strategic role of the Montevideo Consensus on Population and Development as a framework for implementing actions that would contribute to responding to the COVID-19 pandemic’s repercussions on the population’s living conditions and its exercise of rights, the multiple axis of inequality, and the three dimensions of sustainable development – economic, social and environmental – with a view to recovery and social and economic transformation.
“Furthermore, they called for enhancing fulfillment of the priority measures of the Montevideo Consensus through the execution of specific actions, the adequate allocation of resources, and the creation and strengthening of institutional mechanisms for its implementation and follow-up, especially with regard to assisting populations severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic,” ECLAC added.
It said during the conference the more than 1,300 delegates emphasized that, amid an unprecedented international context such as the one marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, “it is necessary to strengthen multilateralism, solidarity, and international cooperation to achieve full implementation of the Montevideo Consensus, the Program of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development beyond 2014, and the 2030 Agenda’s Sustainable Development Goals”
“We have once again reaffirmed our commitment to the Montevideo Consensus, which, together with the 2030 Agenda, are indispensable and very relevant tools for undertaking the tasks needed for a transformative recovery that places equality, sustainability and people at the center,” said Raúl García-Buchaca, ECLAC’s deputy executive secretary for management and program analysis.
Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Harold Robinson, pointed to countries’ “strong reaffirmation” of the conference’s validity and emphasized that the Montevideo Consensus, which has been embraced as the instrument that changes Latin America and the Caribbean’s historical path, “will only be useful once it becomes our collective destination.”
ECLAC said the document of resolutions approved by participating countries “encourages the region’s governments to put special emphasis on strengthening their systems for socio demographic and vital statistics, and to develop and strengthen the capacities of national statistical systems and national statistics offices to produce population data, disaggregated by sex, age, area of residence, income, ethno-racial identity, migratory status, disability and other characteristics.
ECLAC said the resolutions also recognize “the crucial role of civil society organizations, the private sector and academia in the implementation, follow-up, evaluation processes and dissemination of the Montevideo Consensus on Population and Development.”
While Bolivia serves as chair of the Presiding Officers of the Regional Conference on Population and Development, Argentina, Chile, Cuba, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, Peru, St. Lucia, Suriname, Uruguay, and Venezuela will hold the vice chairs, ECLAC said.
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