Eighth Ministerial Forum for Development in Latin America and the Caribbean and the First Meeting of the Presiding Officers of the Regional Conference on Social Development in Latin America and the Caribbean

Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

31 October and 1 November, 2016

PROGRAMME

The meeting is a political dialogue forum with technical inputs in which national governments in the region will discuss social development and social protection policies, share lessons learned in the implementation of these interventions, analyze the direction policies need to take to respond effectively to enhance human development and well-being, recognizing the challenges and opportunities of the new global 2030 Agenda for Latin America and the Caribbean. The meeting will last two days, including an opening ceremony and a keynote speech, three ministerial roundtables backed up with substantive working papers; the discussion of the document "Matrix of social inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean"; information on the preparations for the IX Ministerial Forum for Social Development of Latin America and the Caribbean and II Regional Conference on Social Development in Latin America and the Caribbean, and a field trip.

Objective:

Jointly reflect on the direction of the region’s policies and transformations needed to effectively achieve human development and welfare in the context of the challenges posed by changes in the regional and global socio-economic environment.

Results:

• Identification of lessons learned in social policy development.
• Identification of the main challenges for the implementation of the Agenda 2030.
• Identification of strategies to exit poverty sustainably.
• Systematization of agreements through a final joint declaration.

MINISTERIAL ROUNDTABLES

The Forum is organized in technical sessions to guide knowledge exchange among country delegations taking part in the event.

MINISTERIAL ROUNDTABLE No.1: MULTIDIMENSIONAL PROGRESS: A NEW APPROACH TO OVERCOME INEQUALITY IN THE REGION?

Objective: Reflect on the challenges that countries in the region face to achieve progress in all dimensions and ensure sustainable human development; identify possible steps to achieve such outcome, with special emphasis on inequality concerns. Facilitate a discussion on inequality both between and within countries emphasizing trade-offs to address sustainable development.

Country moderation: Dominican Republic

Main guiding questions:

•  Inequality approaches between and within countries and new mechanisms to address it.
• Multidimensional progress in LAC, dimensions for prioritization and country limitations to effectively achieve human progress in contexts of persistent inequality.
• Poverty and multidimensional progress:
• Effective public policies to achieve multidimensional progress (micro- entrepreneurship, self-employment, reducing gender salary and labor gaps)
• Innovation and ICTs
• Youth and labor markets
• Beyond conditional cash transfer programmes
• To what extent is the rights-based approach a useful strategy in social protection systems?

Country presentations: Antigua, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, El Salvador

Country comments: Grenada, Haiti, Honduras

MINISTERIAL ROUNDTABLE No.2: SUSTAINABLE POVERTY EXIT STRATEGIES: HOW TO PRESERVE SOCIAL POLICY ACHIEVEMENTS

Objective: Identify challenges facing countries in the region to develop comprehensive and inter-sectoral social policies to overcome poverty and reflect on novel mechanisms and strategies in this regard. This roundtable will focus on two conceptual stages: (i) identifying obstacles seen in the region to exit poverty (e.g. social, economic, environmental, political, subjective, etc.), emphasizing the transitions to and from poverty (social mobility), and (ii) addressing mechanisms, strategies and methodologies to address such challenges.

Country moderation: Ecuador

Main guiding questions:

• What are the main global drivers that limit sustainable strategies to exit poverty (economic shocks, political transitions, environmental, technological, insecurity, etc)?
• What are the strategies that successfully contribute to overcoming poverty and vulnerability: education, health, social security, labor market and overall social policy sectors?
• How to understand the transition process and socio-economic mobility across the poverty-vulnerability-middle class spectrum? What mechanisms and policies can be developed to mitigate mobility to vulnerability and poverty and protect achievements? Possible experiences of multisector strategies include:
• Explore labor market dynamics facing poverty reduction of the most vulnerable groups (capacity, paid/ unpaid work, volunteerism, gender gaps, age, etc.)
• Vocational or technical training for employability of young people and reducing the number of young people who neither study nor work (‘ni-ni’s’)
• What are the key success factors identified in the development of policies to combat poverty in a sustainable manner? (labor market quality, capacity building, social protection, achievements of universal and targeted social policies, such as CCT programs and sustainable development, integrality of social policies)
• Articulation of social Policies for poverty eradication, decentralized implementation of policies, including municipalities and the civil society.

Country presentations: Argentina, Dominican Republic, Guyana, Uruguay, Venezuela

Country comments: Brazil, Costa Rica, Cuba, Guatemala, Paraguay, Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts and Nevis

MINISTERIAL ROUNDTABLE No.3: SDGS IMPLEMENTATION: POLICY TO COMBINE THE SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENT PILLARS

Objective: Assess main strengths and limitations of countries in the region to address the challenges of the Agenda 2030 to achieve the 17 SDGs; reflect on how to combine the three pillars of this global agenda: social, economic and environmental.

Country moderation: Costa Rica

Main guiding questions:

• Can the SDGs be achieved? Are there prioritization strategies?
• What are the main challenges to achieve the Agenda 2030?
• How can countries transition to a more comprehensive analysis of the SDGs based on the definition of policies that integrate the three pillars (policies for greater inclusion that is productive, labo0-intesive, socially minded and environmentally focused)
• What are the adaptation and national data challenges faced by countries in this area?
• What are the tools and multidimensional poverty measures, including less explored dimensions of welfare (including for example the three pillars of the global agenda)? How can we address the SDGs in national agendas and development tools? What are novel experiences in the region?
• Productive, inclusive and sustainable development for the environment: what are the trends to address the three pillars successfully?

Country presentations: Guatemala, Panamá, Paraguay, Saint Lucia

Country comments: Argentina, Belize, Mexico, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago

Cross-cutting questions guiding questions for all technical roundtables:

• What are the barriers to enhance access and quality of social services in the region?
• Public Investment: is it an issue of more investment or better investment? What are the challenges to the current model of sectoral policy? Are centralized or decentralized models more effective?
• What are the most effective policies to effectively include youth in public policy-making?

More info:

• First meeting of the Presiding Officers of the Regional Conference on Social Development in Latin America and the Caribbean.

• Declaration

• ECLAC presented the document: ´The social inequality matrix in Latin America´.