ECLAC Session in Brasilia calls for equality in development

Posted: Wednesday, 9 June 2010, Santiago | Author: ECLAC
Staff members, Division Directors, Unit Chiefs and Directors of Subregional Headquarters and Offices of the Economic Commission of Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) gathered in Brasilia, the capital of Brazil, from 30 May to 1 June for the Commission’s Thirty-third Session. 
The Session is ECLAC’s most important biannual event in which Member States review the activities of the ongoing biennium and set the priorities for the following two years. 
For many weeks prior to the meeting, Commission staff members from many divisions worked intensely to prepare and organize the Session, including staff from the Security and Safety Section, the Public Information and Web Services Section, the Conference Services Unit and the Documents and Publications Division, among others. Meanwhile, ECLAC experts concentrated on shaping the main working document to be presented to Member States, Time for Equality. Closing Gaps, Opening Trails. 
The delegation from ECLAC’s headquarters in Santiago was headed by Executive Secretary Alicia Bárcena, Deputy Executive Secretary Antonio Prado, and the Secretary of the Commission, Laura López.
 
Directors, Officers in Charge, experts and staff members of ECLAC’s Subregional Headquarters in the Caribbean and Mexico and its Offices in Brasilia, Buenos Aires, Bogotá, Montevideo and Washington, D.C. also took part in the meeting. 
During the meeting, representatives of ECLAC’s 44 member and nine associate States analyzed the socioeconomic realities of the region and the main document presented by the Executive Secretariat. 
In their resolutions, ECLAC members welcomed the comprehensive approach to development centered on equality set forth in the document and requested that the Executive Secretariat carry out studies and draft public policy proposals for economic and social development with this focus and in close cooperation with national policymakers. 
The President of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, closed the event on 1 June. 
"The world expects signs of leadership. It's time for politics; the time for equality has arrived," stated the Brazilian president in his speech to delegates and ECLAC members. 
More information on the Thirty-third Session is available on the ECLAC webpage.