Latin America and the Caribbean: looking ahead after the Millennium Development Goals: Regional monitoring report on the Millennium Development Goals in Latin America and the Caribbean, 2015

Foreword by Alicia Bárcena

The 15-year time frame originally set for meeting the Millennium Development Goals has come to an end. It is time to take stock of the progress made on the Goals deriving from the United Nations Millennium Summit in 2000. The eight Goals set out to encapsulate the commitments undertaken at the major development conferences and summits held during what came to be known as the “decade of policy-setting”, the 1990s. In September 2015, heads of State and Government will formally adopt the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which sets forth the 17 Sustainable Development Goals together with considerations regarding their implementation.This will mean formulating and implementing active economic, social and environmental policies, closely aligned with an approach long advocated by ECLAC, which posits a structuralist approach to development with equality as its ultimate aim and policymaking as the instrument by which it can be achieved.In order to answer the call to action arising from the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and look to the future, Latin America and the Caribbean must have data and indicators describing the achievements made and the challenges outstanding with respect to the Millennium Development Goals. That is precisely the purpose that ECLAC has set out to fulfil with this publication.