BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – Representatives from government, international organisations and academia will participate in the second regional seminar on Social Development organised by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).

ECLAC said the August 30 to September 1 event will be held virtually within the framework of the collaboration with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO), as well as with the German Cooperation and the Facility for Development in Transition of the European Union.

The three-day seminar is titled “Social security and the protracted crisis: an opportunity to combat inequality within the framework of a welfare state in Latin America and the Caribbean.”

ECLAC said the meeting seeks to be a space for dialogue and reflection on social security systems in the region, with a focus on diagnoses, challenges and strategic guidelines for reform and restructuring processes in pension and health systems, in an uncertain context of recovery of the crises triggered by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the need to consolidate full guarantees for the exercise of social rights in the countries of the region.

The inaugural session will be held on Tuesday and will include the participation of Mario Cimoli, ECLAC acting Executive Secretary, Fabio Bertranou, Director of the ILO Office for the Southern Cone of Latin America; Dr Carissa F Etienne, Director of the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO); Volker Oel, Commissioner for Latin America of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) of Germany; and Jutta Urpilainen, Commissioner for International Associations of the European Commission.

The event includes keynote presentations by Nicholas Barr, Professor at the London School of Economics; Carmelo Mesa-Lago, Professor Emeritus at the University of Pittsburgh; and Sir Michael Marmot, Professor of Epidemiology at University College London (UCL) among other specialists.