Over a thousand representatives of governments, international institutions, the United Nations System, private sectors, academies and civil society participate in the meeting, which will last until April 28th.

The opening of the meeting is scheduled for this Wednesday by the Executive Secretary of ECLAC, José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, and by the Foreign Minister of Argentina, Santiago Cafiero, whose country holds the presidency of the organization until 2024.

During the morning session, Salazar-Xirinachs will present the document “Latin America and the Caribbean Halfway to 2030: Advances and Recommendations for Acceleration”.

In 2015 the UN General Assembly established 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be met within seven years, including the end of poverty and hunger, health and well-being, quality education, gender equality and decent work.

Although the ECLAC report will refer in general to all the SDGs, it will emphasize those referring to clean water and sanitation; affordable and clean energy; industry, innovation and infrastructures; sustainable cities and communities and partnerships to achieve the goals.

Meeting those objectives was seriously hampered first by the Covid-19 pandemic and then by the conflict in Eastern Europe, trade tensions and inflation.

A civil society forum took place at ECLAC headquarters on Tuesday, where various speakers exposed the enormous challenges facing the region in a complex economic and social scenario.

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