The first meeting of the Forum of the Countries of Latin America and the Caribbean on Sustainable Development will take place in Mexico City on 26-28 April 2017 at the Secretariat of Foreign Affairs of Mexico.

This multistakeholder forum will bring together Latin American and Caribbean governments members of the forum, members of parliament, the United Nations System, financial Institutions and Development Banks, regional and subregional integration organizations, civil society, the private sector and academia.

On the occasion of the Forum, the UNDP-UN Environment Poverty-Environment Initiative Latin America and the Caribbean Programme will launch a new report ‘Articulating social and environmental policy for sustainable development: practical options in Latin America and the Caribbean’.

The objective of this report is to exemplify cases of integration and complementarity between public policies on social protection and environmental sustainability.

Ensuring environmental sustainability as the basis of a prosperous future poses a challenge to humanity, who will have to find alternative ways to “leave no one behind” without undermining the natural basis of well-being and livelihoods. The examples presented in the document show that there are already policies and tools that can generate simultaneous positive impacts in terms of poverty reduction and environmental sustainability, and provide us with a series of indications for progress in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.