Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC)From March 20 to 24:
ECLAC Will Hold its Thirty-first Session in Montevideo
The Thirty-first Session of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) will open on Monday 20 March and continue until 24 March in Montevideo, Uruguay.
Delegates to the meeting will examine the challenge of improving and universalizing access to social protection, specifically reforms necessary to health, social welfare and anti-poverty systems, focusing on solidarity and the supply and organization of social protection services.
José Luis Machinea, ECLAC Executive Secretary, and Belela Herrera, Uruguay's Under-Secretary of Foreign Relations, will offer a press conference on Monday 20 March at 11am in Room 1 of the Radisson Montevideo-Victoria Plaza Hotel, in Montevideo, Uruguay.
The Session is ECLAC's most important meeting, establishing the programme of work for this United Nations commission. Every two years, it brings together ECLAC's 42 member states and seven associates to debate the region's economic, social and environmental development, examine ECLAC's activities during the previous two years, and set priorities for work during the next two years.
Some 200 governmental delegates and 100 representatives from specialized United Nations agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and guests are expected to attend.
The session will start on Monday 20 March at 8:30 am with the opening meeting of the Ad Hoc Committee on Population and Development, which will deal with international migration. At mid-day, the South-South Cooperation Committee will meet.
On Tuesday 21, the technical phase of the session will begin. After the election of the officers who will direct session meetings, the report on ECLAC activities in 2004 and 2005 will be presented. That afternoon, José Luis Machinea will present the ECLAC system's draft programme of work for 2008-2009 to governments.
The ministerial phase of the Thirty-first session will start on Wednesday 22 March at 9 am, in the presence of President Tabaré Vázquez Rosas of Uruguay. "Shaping the Future of Social Protection: Access, Financing and Solidarity," the meeting's central report, prepared by ECLAC, will then be presented. José Antonio Ocampo, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs and Rebeca Grynspan, Assistant Administrator and Regional Director of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), will comment.
In the afternoon and throughout Thursday 23 a high-level seminar on the same issue will take place, with the participation of ministers, deputy ministers, and presidents of institutions involved in social protection issues.
The seminar will divide into four panels:
°Social protection and rights
°Health service financing and provision
°Pension system reforms
°Social programmes, human capital and inclusion.
On Friday 24, after the general debate, final resolutions will be approved. At 1 pm, José Luis Machinea will offer a press conference including an evaluation of the Thirty-first Session.
