Latin America and the Caribbean region is at a pivotal moment. While the region has made significant progress in reducing poverty, expanding rights, and consolidating democracy, it continues to face growing pressures: political polarization, institutional mistrust, social fragmentation, the climate crisis, unsafe migration, and the accelerated impact of disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence.

In this context, UNDP invites you to the dialogue “Advancing Democracy and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean”, a space to reflect on the current challenges facing democracy in the region, analyze UNDP’s historical and future role in democratic strengthening and human development, and reaffirm the essential link between democracy and development as unfinished, interdependent processes that must move forward together.

This effort builds on UNDP’s long-standing tradition of generating evidence, ideas, and proposals to support democratic governance—as it did with the 2002 and 2004 reports—and is part of the preparation for the upcoming report Democracy and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean 2025: Reimagining the Futures of Democracy.

Participants:

• Gerardo Munck – Professor, Department of Political Science and International Relations, University of Southern California
• Bettina Woll – UNDP Resident Representative in Panama
• Isabel Saint Malo – Former Vice President and Chancellor of Panama 2014 - 2019
• Marcela Ríos – Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean at International IDEA
• Gerardo Noto – Head of the Country Support Team (CST), UNDP Regional Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean (RBLAC)