Strengthening Latin American society

This meeting in Brasilia, organised by the Brazilian Economic and Social Development Council to mark its tenth anniversary, brought together Dilma Rousseff, President of Brazil; Alicia Bárcena, Executive Secretary of CEPAL; and Marcelo Neri, Executive Secretary of CDES, among other important personalities, as well as representatives from the Latin American and European Councils, such as the CES in Spain, to represent the Program. The meeting served to strengthen the Network of Latin American and Caribbean Councils, which, since its foundation, has had the support of EUROsociAL through FIIAPP’s Social Dialogue Unit (see video: Social Dialogue: the CESALC Network).

During the three sessions, there was time to analyze the current situation of Latin America, with special emphasis on Brazil, which hosted the meeting. The President of Brazil opened the seminar, highlighting Brazil’s successes in the last ten years, since the CDES was created, and encouraged its participants to provide continuity to the mission of debating proposals from different social sectors for the country’s development; a message that also reached the representatives of the Latin American and Caribbean Councils in attendance.

Alicia Bárcena cited the publication entitled “The Time of Equality” to reaffirm that “promoting equality means recognising rights and breaking with an economic model that has heightened inequality.” Furthermore, Bárcena defended universal social protection of the population through a structure with a better distribution of productive factors. The Executive Secretary of CEPAL later explained in a television interview that “today, the key for Latin America is social protection,” and gave the example of the resistance of the family structure in Spain during the crisis, thanks to many years of social policies, an example that was mentioned earlier by Julián Ariza (Spanish Economic and Social Council).