SELA’s Work Programme for 2021 aims at post-pandemic recovery of the region

Representatives of 26 member countries of SELA met during the XLVI (forty-sixth) Regular Meeting of the Latin American Council and approved the Work Programme to be executed by the Latin American and Caribbean Economic System (SELA), through activities to promote the economic, social and commercial recovery of the region.

Because of the adverse prospects for the continent as a result of the COVID-19 crisis, SELA adjusted its new Work Programme for next year taking into account the views of various government institutions, which refer to the best practices and the need to open up spaces for debates and concertation of actions for recovery.

"The current context requires addressing the challenges to overcome the pandemic and its collateral damages, along with international organizations in charge of multilateral cooperation in key and systemic actions, which contribute to redesigning the Development Strategies in Latin America and the Caribbean," said the Permanent Secretary of SELA, Ambassador Javier Paulinich, during the Council.

"To this end, SELA, in addition to continuing with the annual editions of its traditional agenda, in 2021 will deepen the encouragement of investment promotion, the strengthening of public policies for MSMEs, the resilience plans in productive sectors, and decision-making in accordance with the Sustainable Development Goals as an investment path; as well as the provision of effective tools to address economic challenges," he said.

In addition, Paulinich highlighted the conduction of articulated meetings to consider regional socio-economic challenges in the face of the productive slowdown landscape, "which allow for creating mechanisms for consultation and concertation of efficient and replicable ideas and proposals to encourage the region’s recovery".

In the area of social development, Paulinich highlighted that the issue of migration will continue to be the subject of attention because, in addition to exploring the best practices on the health rights of migrants during the pandemic at a regional meeting, the SELA Observatory on Migration will be launched as an initiative of the inter-governmental institution, "as a platform for monitoring and analysing the trends and characteristics of this phenomenon and the public policies to deal with it," he said.

With regard to technological development, SELA plans to provide training, in coordination with the European Institute for International Relations, to officials of government institutions on the development of negotiations in cyberspace governance; as well as holding "a meeting to address strategies to promote digitization and business innovation," he pointed out.

New alliances

The Permanent Secretary also underscored that thanks to SELA's performance in the area of disaster risk reduction and health care issues, an alliance was formed with the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and the Inter-American Conference on Social Security (CISS) in order to launch a Disaster Protocol for Social Security Institutions in the Americas, "with the purpose of strengthening the social and economic resilience of American individuals and populations to multi-threat risk disasters."

"It should be reported that, as a measure to strengthen multilateralism, the framework for specific and meaningful cooperation between the United Nations and SELA for the region has been revived, with the upcoming adoption of a resolution at the General Assembly which aims to intensify and expand mutual cooperation in matters of common interest, through its specialized agencies", he said.

In this regard, Paulinich noted that shared governance, "accompanied by strong multilateralism, guarantees stability and progress. Forging inter-governmental agreements, in various scenarios and on a variety of issues, and the commitment to their implementation, whether at the global or regional level, has been a step forward in confronting unilateralism, strengthening smaller countries and, above all, generating spaces where the demands of many would have no place."

"In these times, the responsiveness of multilateralism is being put to the test, and I fully hope that ongoing regional efforts to engage in networks of effective interaction are a factor of stability," he concluded.