The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) has called for what it describes as the implementation of “enabling policies” that will allow for the effective fulfillment of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the region.
ECLAC said its Acting Executive Secretary Mario Cimoli and Costa Rica’s Foreign Minister Arnoldo André Tinoco participated in a meeting of the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development 2022, which focused on “listening to messages from the regions.”
Prior to that, both officials spoke at a virtual side event on “Development in Transition,” ECLAC said.
“Financing for development, food security, the energy transition, integrated management of natural disasters and climate action must be enabling policies that would allow for the effective fulfillment of the Sustainable Development Goals,” said Cimoli during a session of the High-Level Political Forum.
Cimoli warned that just eight years before the deadline for achieving the SDGs, “the structural challenges for its implementation have increased in a context of multiple crises.”
“Both the importance of the SDGs as well as the difficulties for achieving them are clear,” he said. “It will be impossible without financing for development and without fiscal space for the economies of Latin America and the Caribbean and middle-income countries.”
ECLAC’s acting executive secretary added that it is imperative to ensure food security and manage the accelerated rise in food prices that the region is experiencing.
Furthermore, he stressed the importance of international cooperation for implementing the energy transition in developing economies, “which are under pressure on prices and have a historical debt that they cannot settle.”
In his capacity as chair of ECLAC and of the fifth meeting of the Forum of the Countries of Latin America and the Caribbean on Sustainable Development, Tinoco stressed the importance of strengthening political dialogue and regional cooperation for a “sustainable, inclusive and resilient recovery.”
He said the 33 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean reaffirmed their commitment to effectively implementing the 2030 Agenda, noting that “it is crucial to reach those who lag furthest behind first and to empower those who are in situations of vulnerability.”
In a virtual side event of the High-Level Political Forum organized by the Government of Costa Rica and ECLAC, delegates “highlighted the multidimensional nature of development and the importance of multilateral action and reaffirmed ‘Development in Transition’ as the new paradigm for international cooperation,” ECLAC said.
It said this new paradigm “may be guided by recognition of the multidimensional and continuous nature of development processes and the specificities of Latin American and Caribbean countries, moving towards partnerships, based on shared agendas adapted to the specific needs of countries and with the goal of addressing structural development gaps, contributing to the generation of regional and global public goods.”
CMC/
