Management report of the Secretariat for Access to Rights and Equity

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

We thank you for including in the order of business of this regular meeting of the Permanent Council the 2022 Management Report of the Secretariat for Access to Rights and Equity. We likewise congratulate Secretary Maricarmen Plata on her meticulous presentation of the excellent work she has been carrying out from that Secretariat, accompanied by her dedicated team and together with the Member States of this Organization.

The content of this dense and detailed Report shows the arduous efforts deployed in the projects, programs and activities promoted from within the Organization for the people of our Hemisphere, where the most vulnerable represent a significant proportion and attending to them is imperative.

Our Permanent Mission wishes to highlight the annual Digital Diploma Course on Leadership, Social Inclusion and Access to Rights, which will hold its third edition this year. This course has been a great educational platform for our region on various subjects of social inclusion and access to rights, with emphasis on the most vulnerable groups. We hope that it continues to be offered in the years to come.

Before concluding, we must highlight the successful completion of one ministerial cycle and the start of a new one with the Fifth Meeting of Ministers and High Authorities of Social Development, held in Santo Domingo, the capital of our country, on November 17 and 18, 2022, at which we welcomed more than twenty delegations from the states of the Americas. This was the first in-person meeting of ministers and high authorities of social development since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. There we adopted the second Plan of Action on Social Development and approved the Declaration of Santo Domingo.

Our country offered a space for dialogue in which participants were able to interact and discuss current problems, the definition of priorities, and the articulation of concrete actions and strategies of cooperation to advance the social development of our region. It is also important to note that the holding of this ministerial meeting, as well as the active participation of the working groups and the Inter-American Committee on Social Development and Employment, have contributed broadly to the tasks presented in this Report. We are clearly committed to continuing to take firm steps and to give effect to the commitments of our Governments to strengthen hemispheric cooperation toward resilient reconstruction and sustainable social development in the Americas.

Thank you very much.