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News > Latin America

CELAC Agenda Can Boost UN Development Goals, Says Ecuador

  • Ecuadorean President, and current President of CELAC, Rafael Correa speaking at the regional bloc's summit earlier this year.

    Ecuadorean President, and current President of CELAC, Rafael Correa speaking at the regional bloc's summit earlier this year. | Photo: Reuters

Published 28 September 2015
Opinion

The Latin American and Caribbean States agenda for 2020 already includes a number of development goals that can help boost the new U.N. goals.

Latin American leaders have a great opportunity to take the lead in supporting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) announced by the United Nations last weekend and alleviating poverty and climate change, according to Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa.

Correa's remarks come during the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit over the weekend, where member countries announced the new SDGs – a new set of global goals and targets to eradicate poverty and climate change, created to replace the U.N. Millennium Development Goals that came to an end in 2015.

While in New York, Correa addressed Latin American leaders at a special meeting for the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) – a regional bloc pushing for deeper Latin American sovereignty and integration.

Correa told CELAC leaders Sunday that the bloc's 2020 agenda could be an important instrument to “move more strongly on the new 2015 [U.N. development] agenda.”

RELATED: CELAC: Building Regional Unity; Tackling Social Exclusion

“The definition of the objectives of sustainable development – the post-2015 development agenda – inspires us to build opportunity and progress for all people, through clear and specific objectives respecting the different national realities, capacities and levels of development,” said the president, who is also the current pro-tempore president of CELAC.

“Our CELAC, in little time, we have taken decisive steps to be clear about the priorities of the region that will allow us to set up a strategic agenda and mechanisms of cooperation,” added the president, emphasizing the importance of the bloc and its willingness to cooperate in the global development strategies.

Correa then highlighted the principle goals set out in the CELAC 2020 agenda, which was established in January, including: reducing extreme poverty and inequality; developing science, technology and innovation; encouraging strategies against climate change; establishing more infrastructure and connectivity; and increasing financing for development.

RELATED: Watch President Correa’s address to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Summit

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