The Commission’s thirty-seventh session, which is its most important biennial gathering, will be held on May 7-11 in Havana.

(April 27, 2018) From May 7 to 11, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) will hold in Havana, Cuba its thirty-seventh session, the United Nations regional commission’s most important biennial meeting, at which it will deliver its new development proposal for all the countries of the region.

The event, which will take place at the Palacio de Convenciones de La Habana, will bring together representatives of ECLAC’s 46 member countries and 13 associate members and will be attended by more than 25 ministers, deputy ministers and other senior authorities from more than 20 countries’ departments of Foreign Affairs, Energy, Mining, Public Works, the Environment, Trade, Social Development, Women’s Affairs, Education, Economy, Finance, Production, Information Technologies, Health and Planning, among others.

At the meeting, participants will analyze issues relevant to the development of the region’s countries and will examine the progress made on the Commission’s activities. On this occasion, ECLAC will present its report on activities regarding the work done in the last two years and attendees will define, via the approval of a program of work and a calendar of conferences, the mandates that will guide its work during the next biennium (2019-2020).

The official opening ceremony of the 37th session will take place on Tuesday, May 8 at 9 a.m. local time and will be led by Alicia Bárcena, ECLAC’s Executive Secretary; Luis Videgaray Caso, the Secretary of Foreign Affairs of Mexico, the country that currently holds the presidency of the Commission; a high-ranking representative of the government of Cuba, the country that will hold the presidency for the next two years; and António Guterres, the Secretary-General of the United Nations (to be confirmed).

Along with presenting its report on activities – including those carried out by its nine subsidiary bodies – as well as its program of work, over the five days of the meeting sessions will include a commemorative seminar in recognition of the organization’s 70th anniversary (which is being celebrated in 2018), another high-level seminar about the inefficiency of inequality, and a dialogue between foreign affairs ministers and other senior authorities.

In addition, ECLAC will offer governments its reflections regarding the urgency of addressing the problems caused by growing inequality in the region and how this can affect compliance with the commitments of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as contained in the position document The Inefficiency of Inequality, which will be released at the meeting.

The event will also draw researchers and scholars, officials from nearly 30 bodies that are intergovernmental, specialized or form part of the United Nations System, and various representatives of civil society organizations.

Cuba is a founding member of ECLAC and has participated in the Commission’s activities since 1948. This will be the second time that the country hosts a session, after serving as the site for the organization’s second meeting in 1949. Its designation as host of the 37th session was endorsed by acclamation by ECLAC’s member countries at the conclusion of the work done during the Thirty-sixth session, held on May 23-27, 2016 in Mexico City.

The full programme of ECLAC’s thirty-seventh session, as well as general information on the meeting and registration information for participants and journalists, is available on the gathering’s special website: https://periododesesiones.cepal.org/37/en.