Business View Caribbean | Volume 9, Issue 3

5 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN VOLUME 9, ISSUE 3 Alicia Bárcena indicated that access to vaccines exposed the fiercest nationalist tendencies. She specified that Latin America and the Caribbean was affected by trade protectionism on medicines, equipment and vaccines that prompted the consideration of a plan for self- sufficiency in health matters with a regional perspective, which was approved unanimously by the heads of state and government of the 32 countries of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) on September 18, 2021. She noted that while the average total vaccination rate in the region is high, reaching 62.6% of the population, the Caribbean – with the exception of Cuba and the Dominican Republic – has only been able to ensure full vaccination for 14.7% of its population. ECLAC’s highest authority stressed that this singular time should redouble Latin America and the Caribbean’s shared vocation for closeness, integration and fraternity and be the foundation for a change in the development pattern. “Our region faces major challenges today, but it also has multiple opportunities to achieve long- awaited development with a vision centered on equality, social justice, sustainability, democracy and peace. I am convinced that it is possible for the region to raise its voice in unison amid the historic challenges that this crucial time has prompted us to address,” she concluded. After the inauguration, Alicia Bárcena presented the document A decade of action for a change of era, which reviews progress and challenges in relation to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in Latin America and the Caribbean. The report analyzes the growing global asymmetries between developed and developing countries, along with the economic, social and political effects of COVID-19 in Latin America and the Caribbean. It affirms that the recovery has furthered a development model that had already shown its structural limitations, which imposes growing costs and moves away from attainment of the SDGs. According to the document, 68% of the sustainable development targets continue along an insufficient path towards 2030. It warns that just one-third of the 111 targets of the SDGs are on the proper pace and trajectory in Latin America and the Caribbean. “These results reinforce the need for a decade of action to transform the development model based on effective multilateralism,” the senior official emphasized. During the meeting’s opening session, ECLAC’s top representative received numerous expressions of recognition for her work over nearly 14 years at the helm of ECLAC’s Executive Secretariat, a term that will come to an end on OPENING L INES