The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) Extraordinary meeting of the Committee on South-South Cooperation is taking place to analyze opportunities for renewed international cooperation for the region’s development.
In her opening address Alicia Bárcena, Executive Secretary of ECLAC, emphasized that international cooperation has been and continues to be a driving force for economic and social progress in many countries.
“Haiti needs us,” she said, while expressing her appreciation to the countries that have deployed capacities and collaboration to address the emergency in Haiti.
She added that ECLAC has placed all its capabilities at the disposal of the Haitian authorities and people.
Bárcena expressed that unequal growth, stagnant wages, geopolitical tensions and increasing uncertainty in recent years have called into question the development models that countries followed for decades, reports the Commission on Twitter.
Latin America and the Caribbean represent 8.4 % of the world’s population, but account for 21 % of infections and 32.5 % of mortality, she said, referring to the impact of COVID-19.
In socioeconomic terms, this has been one of the hardest hit regions, with GDP falling by 6.8 % in 2020, she said.
She said that although in 2021 the region will recover by 5.2 %, and in 2022 possibly 2.9 %, this growth will not be enough to recover either the 2019 output level in most countries or the level of employment, especially for women.
The female participation rate declined from 51 % in 2019 to 46.9 % in 2020, which places it at levels similar to those of 2002, she stated.
More than 167 million students in the region lost a year of on-site schooling with an impact on their learning; 3.1 million young people and children are at risk of dropping out of school, warned Bárcenas.
She also stressed that ECLAC is proposing the creation of a Caribbean Resilience Fund to address the needs of the region.
In this complex global and particularly regional scenario, regional solidarity and cooperation are fundamental to rebuild better, with equality and sustainability, based on robust social pacts that strengthen the participation of citizens, she said.
She said that Latin America and the Caribbean must strengthen their regional agreements, deepen intra-regional cooperation ties and promote a concerted voice before the world, to find solutions to overcome the crisis and move towards sustainable development.
“Development cooperation must evolve towards a multidimensional concept to address the challenges faced by middle-income countries. It is time to reconsider criteria for measuring and classifying development and suspend graduation.”
She added that the task is challenging and to accomplish it, it is necessary to promote in-depth and fruitful debates, leading to agreements that strengthen cooperation ties and promote a concerted voice.
Rodolfo Solano Quirós, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Worship of Costa Rica, warned that international cooperation is a global pact, an ethical and civic commitment that requires democratic environments, respectful of basic rights, for the benefit of the most vulnerable sectors.
It is essential for the region to speak with a single voice in a world that is being profoundly reconfigured, the reason to transition ECLAC’s South-South Cooperation Committee to a regional conference, he said.
Déborah Rivas, Vice Minister of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment is representing Cuba at the virtual meeting.
Information source: MINCEX Cuba and CEPAL.org
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