Distr. GENERAL LC/G.2160(SES.29/6) 11 April 2002 ENGLISH ORIGINAL: SPANISH Twenty-ninth session Brasilia, Brazil, 6-10 May 2002 REPORT ON THE ACTIVITIES OF THE COMMISSION SINCE APRIL 2000 02-2-117 Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe, CEPAL, Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, ECLAC iii CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................................... 1 I. ACTIVITIES OF THE SUBSIDIARY BODIES, PREPARATIONS AND FOLLOW-UP FOR WORLD CONFERENCES AND INTER-AGENCY ACTIVITIES ......................................... 3 (i) Activities of subsidiary bodies and meetings ........................................................................... 3 (ii) Activities of preparation and follow-up to the world conferences on economic and social issues ....................................................................................................................... 7 (iii) Inter-agency activities .............................................................................................................. 11 II. SUBSTANTIVE ACTIVITIES........................................................................................................... 13 A. MULTIDISCIPLINARY ACTIVITIES................................................................................... 13 B. SUBPROGRAMME ACTIVITIES ......................................................................................... 17 Linkages with the world economy, competitiveness and productive specialization ................ 17 Integration, open regionalism and regional cooperation .......................................................... 19 Industrial, technological and business development ................................................................ 20 Macroeconomic equilibria, investment and financing.............................................................. 21 Social development and equity................................................................................................. 23 Administrative management..................................................................................................... 25 Environmental and land resource sustainability....................................................................... 34 Population and development .................................................................................................... 37 Statistics and economic projections.......................................................................................... 38 Subregional activities in Mexico and Central America............................................................ 39 Subregional activities in the Caribbean.................................................................................... 41 Mainstreaming the gender perspective into the regional development process........................ 43 C. COOPERATION ACTIVITIES............................................................................................... 46 (i) Main shifts in international cooperation trends ........................................................................ 46 (ii) Technical cooperation missions ............................................................................................... 51 (iii) ECLAC activities in support of technical cooperation among developing countries ............... 52 (iv) Technical cooperation projects in conjunction with development agencies............................. 64 III. DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES....................................................................................................... 83 Documents and Publications Division................................................................................................. 83 ECLAC Library................................................................................................................................... 85 CEPAL Review ................................................................................................................................... 87 Information Services Unit ................................................................................................................... 89 ECLAC Internet Development and Coordination Unit ....................................................................... 90 iv ABBREVIATIONS ACS Association of Caribbean States ADC Andean Development Corporation CARICOM Caribbean Community CDCC Caribbean Development and Cooperation Committee FAO Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations FTAA Free Trade Area of the Americas IDB Inter-American Development Bank IICA Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture ILO International Labour Organisation ILPES Latin American and Caribbean Institute for Economic and Social Planning IMF International Monetary Fund LAIA Latin American Integration Association OAS Organization of American States OIJ Ibero-American Youth Organization OLADE Latin American Energy Organization PAHO Pan American Health Organization SELA Latin American Economic System UNCTAD United Nations Conference on Trade and Development UNDP United Nations Development Programme UNEP United Nations Environment Programme UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization UNFPA United Nations Population Fund UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund UNIDO United Nations Industrial Development Organization UNIFEM United Nations Development Fund for Women WHO World Health Organization WTO World Trade Organization 1 INTRODUCTION This report on the activities of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) covers the two-year period since the last session of the Commission in April 2000. It reviews the work carried out within the framework of the programme of work of the ECLAC system, which includes the Latin American and Caribbean Institute for Economic and Social Planning (ILPES). Some changes have been made in the presentation of the report, which consists of three sections. Part I (i) describes the activities and meetings of subsidiary bodies, namely, the Caribbean Development and Cooperation Committee (CDCC), the Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean, the Statistical Conference of the Americas of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, the Regional Council for Planning of ILPES, the ECLAC sessional Ad Hoc Committee on Population and Development and the Ad hoc working group established pursuant to resolution 553(XXVI). A brief description is provided of the activities carried out by each entity and the decisions and agreements adopted. The report also includes a summary of the following meetings: the eighteenth session of the Caribbean Development and Cooperation Committee (CDCC) - technical and ministerial segments; the tenth meeting of the CDCC Monitoring Committee; the eighth meeting of the Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean and the thirtieth, thirty-first, thirty second and thirty-third meetings of the Presiding Officers of the Regional Conference; the first meeting of the Statistical Conference of the Americas of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean; the twentieth meeting of the Presiding Officers of the Regional Council for Planning of ILPES; the open-ended meeting of the ECLAC sessional Ad hoc Committee on Population and Development and the sixth meeting of the Ad hoc working group established pursuant to resolution 553(XXVI). Part I (ii) reports on the preparatory and follow-up activities to the world conferences on economic and social issues, namely, the World Summit on Sustainable Development; the International Conference on Population and Development, the World Summit for Social Development, the United Nations Conference on Human Settlements, the Special Session of the General Assembly in 2001 for Follow-up to the World Summit for Children; the International Conference on Financing for Development and the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance. Part I (iii) reviews the inter-agency activities centred on ties of collaboration, coordination and consultation between ECLAC and specialized agencies and other intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations during the biennium. Part II A of the report begins with an account of the institutional multidisciplinary activities carried out by the substantive divisions of ECLAC under the coordination of the Office of the Executive Secretary, which gave rise to a process based on participation and discussion and which has helped to promote an integral approach to economic and social development in the countries of the region. This section contains three subdivisions: the first relates to the preparation of ECLAC documents for the meetings of the 2 Commission or other specific agencies; the second reports on the commemorative acts organized to mark the centenary of Raúl Prebisch’s birth, the Conference entitled “Toward a New Paradigm: Social Capital and Poverty Reduction in Latin America and the Caribbean” and the public launching of the study and the intergovernmental meeting on a standardized methodology for comparing defence spending in Argentina and Chile and the third presents some of the outputs resulting from interdivisional work, namely documents, meetings, training and technical cooperation with respect to natural disasters. Part II B contains a brief outline of the overall direction and the salient aspects of the