The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) convened its eighth regional forum on sustainable development (RFSD) in preparation for the UN High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) in July. Countries reaffirmed their commitment to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and emphasized the need to expand capacities to accelerate the achievement of the SDGs in the remaining five years.
According to ECLAC’s SDG progress report 2025, the region is on track to achieve 23% of the SDG targets by 2030, with 41% needing acceleration and 36% having stalled or regressed compared to 2015 levels.
“Without cooperation and without partnerships, there is no 2030 Agenda,” stated ECLAC’s Executive Secretary José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs opening the Regional Forum. Acknowledging that ten years after the adoption of the 2030 Agenda, “there is still a lot of ground to cover,” he called attention to the “highly uncertain economic context, with the resurgence and intensification of geopolitical tensions, a reconfiguration of international alliances, and threats of various kinds to international cooperation and to the multilateral system.”
Nevertheless, Salazar-Xirinachs stressed that there is reason for optimism and hope “because there is still commitment in the region… and because there is still a lot of room for maneuver on managing the transformations.” In this context, he said “financing continues to be a huge challenge,” calling for strengthening international and regional cooperation and multisectoral partnerships.
Commending the region for its “undeniable” leadership on sustainable development, UN Under-Secretary-General Li Junhua underscored the need to “fortify collaborative efforts at all levels” with a renewed sense of urgency.
In a video message, UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed urged participants to make the Regional Forum “a turning point, a renewed commitment to the 2030 Agenda, a call for transformation and a platform for joint action to bridge gaps, foster innovation and build a more inclusive, prosperous and sustainable future that leaves no one behind.”
The Forum featured a series of dialogues on global, regional, and national action, in which participants evaluated progress and exchanged experiences and good practices around implementing the 2030 Agenda.
The dialogues on global action included discussions around global commitments that are expected to arise from the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4), the Second World Summit for Social Development, and the 2025 UN Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC COP 30). They also focused on follow-up to the Beijing+30 Political Declaration and the Pact for the Future and its annexes, adopted at the 2024 Summit of the Future (SoF).
The dialogues on regional action reviewed LAC’s implementation of the Goals undergoing in-depth review at HLPF 2025 – SDG 3 (good health and well-being), SDG 5 (gender equality), SDG 8 (decent work and economic growth), SDG 14 (life below water), and SDG 17 (partnerships for the Goals).
The dialogues on national action shared successful national experiences with accelerating the attainment of the SDGs and good practices and challenges in preparing voluntary national reviews (VNRs).
During the Regional Forum, ECLAC and the UN Development Programme (UNDP) launched the Multidimensional Poverty Index for Latin America – “a tool that incorporates dimensions other than income into the measurement of well-being and tailors its standards to the region’s particular reality.”
The 2025 Forum of the Countries of Latin America and the Caribbean on Sustainable Development convened in Santiago, Chile, from 31 March to 4 April. Its outcomes will inform the deliberations during the HLPF’s July session. [ECLAC Forum Curtain Raiser] [ECLAC Press Release] [ECLAC’s Press Release on Forum’s Closing]