The three-day gathering was inaugurated by José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, ECLAC’s executive secretary; Susanne Fries-Gaier, ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany in Chile; Hak-Jae Kim, Ambassador of the Republic of Korea in Chile; and Diego Spottorno, technical advisor in the department of cooperation with Andean Countries of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), on behalf of Laura Oroz Ulibarri, director of cooperation with Latin America and the Caribbean at AECID (who also sent a video message). Alberto Arenas de Mesa, director of ECLAC’s social development division, acted as moderator.
“In this new multipolar era, which is also marked by geopolitical instability, social development continues to be more important than ever, not only as a moral imperative of human solidarity, but because the lack of attention to social matters is perhaps the biggest threat both to economic progress and the stability of societies and democracies. Tending to social matters is vital for restoring people’s trust and hope in government, in democracy, in multilateralism and in international cooperation,” José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs emphasized.
ECLAC’s executive secretary analyzed the three development traps that limit Latin America and the Caribbean’s progress (low capacity for growth and transformation; high inequality, low social mobility and weak social cohesion; and low institutional capacity and ineffective governance), and he presented the policy brief “The road to the 2025 Second World Summit for Social Development: towards a pact for inclusive social development.”
“At the First Social Development Summit, in 1995 in Copenhagen, social development was positioned as a strategic pillar of global development,” ECLAC’s highest authority recalled. The approval of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and other international treaties and agreements, such as the recent Pact for the Future, shows “that it is possible to achieve major consensuses, commitments and agreements that would make the attainment of shared goals linked to social development viable,” he added.
For that reason, José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs stressed: “We at ECLAC call on the international community to reach agreement on a Pact for inclusive social development at the Second World Summit for Social Development to enable fulfillment of the social commitments agreed upon in the 2030 Agenda.”
More concretely, ECLAC is putting forth ten proposals for a Pact for inclusive social development:
1) Eradicate poverty and hunger;
2) Reduce inequality;
3) Expand universal, comprehensive, sustainable and resilient social protection systems;
4) Foster digital social protection to navigate the digital transformation;
5) Reduce gender inequality and promote the care society; 6) Further labor inclusion in a context of bolstered productive development policies;
7) Invest in education as a social mobility mechanism for young people;
8) Transform health systems to move towards universal health;
9) Strengthen pension systems to address rapid population ageing; and,
10) Mobilize resources and multilateral cooperation to achieve financial sustainability for inclusive social development.
In 2023, poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean affected 27.3 percent of the population, the lowest figure on record but very similar to that of 2014. Extreme poverty was 10.6 percent, well above the 8.6 percent from a decade earlier.
“That is why we talk about a second lost decade between 2014 and 2023, not only in terms of economic growth but also in terms of poverty reduction,” ECLAC’s executive secretary underscored.
In her opening remarks, Germany’s ambassador in Chile, Susanne Fries-Gaier, agreed that “especially at this time, we need strong multilateral organizations more than ever to collaborate on pursuing solutions to the problems we face. That is why we deeply value the singular role played by ECLAC as one of the region’s most influential think tanks, as a pillar of multilateral cooperation, and as a strategic interlocutor for formulating forward-looking public policies.”
Meanwhile, the Republic of Korea’s ambassador in Chile, Hak-Jae Kim, indicated that “inclusivity is no longer just an aspect of social well-being. The only path towards sustainable economic growth is inclusive growth that equitably distributes the opportunities and results of development.” He further noted that “when inequality worsens, opportunities shrink. The lack of opportunities only intensifies the conflicts between classes and generations.”
In a video message, Laura Oroz Ulibarri said that “AECID’s strategic partnership with ECLAC is more than 30 years old. ECLAC is one of our priority partners for achieving development goals for the region. Combining our resources, knowledge and experience, we address regional challenges through collaboration and mutual learning. Social cohesion and the search for alternatives in the face of social inequality are precisely the priority themes in our shared agenda.” These remarks were reaffirmed by Diego Spottorno, technical advisor in AECID’s department of cooperation with Andean Countries.
The high-level panel on which participants analyzed the region’s preparatory process ahead of the Second World Summit for Social Development (Doha, Qatar, November 4-6, 2025) featured comments by Javiera Toro, minister of social development and family of Chile; Mark Franklin, permanent secretary in the ministry of people empowerment and elder affairs of Barbados (virtually); Sophie De Smedt, permanent representative of Belgium to the United Nations (via video), whose country is serving along with Morocco as co-facilitator of the Second World Summit; and Bjørg Sandkjær, assistant secretary-general at the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA).
The Fifth Regional Seminar on Social Development in Latin America and the Caribbean – which includes keynote addresses, roundtables, panels and side events – will address issues such as social cohesion; poverty, hunger and inequality; investment in early childhood; universal health; digital transformation; and social protection and labor inclusion, among others.
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