Resident Coordinator For Belize And Chair Of The Un Multi-Country Sustainable Development Framework Regional Steering Committee Addresses Forum Of Countries For Latin America And The Caribbean On Sustainable Development

Authorities from the 33 countries of #LatinAmerica and the #Caribbean, from 20 #UnitedNations agencies, funds and programs, 21 financial institutions from the region, as well as more than 440 representatives of civil society, participated in the #LACForum2030. In total, more than 9,600 people connected live to the event!

The United Nations Resident Coordinator (RC) for Belize & El Salvador and Chair of the UN Multi-Country Sustainable Development Framework Regional Steering Committee, Birgit Gerstenberg, participated in a panel on building forward better in the Caribbean, post COVID-19 under the theme of critical issues to keep the 2030 Agenda in sight, during the 4th meeting of the Forum of the Countries for Latin America and the Caribbean on Sustainable Development held virtually on Tuesday, March 16th 2021.



In her statement the RC highlighted the need to leverage the global discussion on financing for development for the benefit of Caribbean member states. “We, the Resident Coordinators in the Caribbean, stand ready to support through the prioritization of this issue in the Cooperation Frameworks and the strengthening of multi-stakeholder partnerships of the Caribbean SIDS. The UN Country Teams across the Caribbean developed Socio-economic Response Plans (SERPs) to support states and societies to confront the socio-economic impact of the pandemic. These plans are based on a global framework that captures our experience of what works, from previous epidemics and previous economic crises.” said Ms. Gerstenberg.

“The extent to which the Caribbean will be able to retake the path towards Agenda 2030 will depend on some immediate priorities, namely the capacity of States to vaccinate their populations, including non-citizens; their access to internal and external financial resources to continue implementation of emergency socio-economic measures, injecting liquidity into economies to restart small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs); the safe reopening of schools; providing protection and social assistance to the most vulnerable, including survivors of gender based violence as well as migrants and refugees”.

The countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, through Resolution 700 (XXXVI) approved in May 2016 within the framework of the Thirty-sixth Session of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), created the Forum of the Countries of Latin America and the Caribbean on Sustainable Development as a regional mechanism for the implementation and monitoring of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the SDGs, their targets and means of implementation, as well as the Addis Ababa Action Agenda on Financing for Development.