SAN JOSÉ, CMC – The Economic Commission for Latin American and the Caribbean [ECLAC] has advised that “Costa Rica will host the Fifth Meeting of the Forum of the Countries of Latin America and the Caribbean on Sustainable Development from March 7-9.

“The goal of this Forum is to assess the progress in the region toward implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,” said ECLAC. It noted that the Forum will be attended by high authorities including Carlos Alvarado, President of Costa Rica, current holder of the ECLAC pro tempore presidency; Amina Mohammed, United Nations Deputy Secretary-General; and Alicia Bárcena, ECLAC’s executive secretary. 

ECLAC said participants will include high government representatives from the 33 countries of the region, agencies, United Nations funds and programmes, international financial institutions and development banks, regional and sub-regional integration organisations, civil society, the parliamentary world, academia and the private sector. They will be drawn from the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean and other regions of the world. 

“The President of Costa Rica, the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations and the Executive Secretary of ECLAC will inaugurate the Fifth Meeting of the Forum of the Countries of Latin America and Caribbean on Sustainable Development,” ECLAC said. 

It said the Forum will include 25 side events, where attendees will meet to review the progress and challenges of implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in the region.

“The regional Forum seeks to provide useful peer-learning activities through voluntary reviews, the exchange of good practices and discussion of common goals,” said the Pan American Health Organisation [PAHO].

Its conclusions are submitted directly to the United Nations High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) on Sustainable Development, a global monitoring mechanism of the 2030 Agenda that meets every July in New York. 

In the context of the meeting, ECLAC said Bárcena will present the fifth report on regional progress and challenges posed by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in Latin America and the Caribbean, titled “A decade of action for a change of era.” 

Rodolfo Solano, Costa Rica’s Foreign Affairs Minister, will, in turn, present the document, “An innovative financing agenda for the recovery,” ECLAC said.

On Tuesday, March 8, it said the Forum will officially commemorate International Women’s Day, with participation by female ministers and high officials from mechanisms that promote the advancement of women, in addition to United Nations high officials and civil society.

ELCAC said the fifth meeting of the Forum will also hold five thematic roundtables, covering issues such as development in transition and the urgency of advancing toward renewed international cooperation for development; statistical, quantitative and territorial monitoring of the Sustainable Development Goals; natural disasters and the asymmetry of climate change in the Caribbean; the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity for a sustainable recovery; and education and gender equality as a key human right for the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda.