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Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is at a crossroads. In recent decades, the region has achieved remarkable progress: between 2000 and 2023, poverty was reduced from 50% to 25%, infant mortality was cut in half, and schooling improved substantially, consolidating LAC as a middle-income region. It also positioned itself as the third most democratic region in the world, with advances in human rights, participatory mechanisms, the strengthening of electoral institutions, and greater representation of women in politics.

However, the pace of these achievements is decelerating: the Human Development Index has not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels, and the decade risks becoming another “lost decade” for growth, in a context marked by polarization, institutional weakening, and erosion of trust. In the face of complex global challenges – climatic, technological, economic, and political – the region requires a long-term development vision grounded in economic, social, institutional, and environmental resilience.

In this context, the private sector – responsible for a large share of employment and GDP – plays a key role in mobilizing investment, innovation, and social cohesion, as well as in strengthening the rule of law, transparency, and respect for human rights. The most recent Regional Human Development Report (RHDR) 2025 (Under Pressure: Recalibrating the Future of Development in LAC) calls for moving from reactive policies to anticipatory investments in sustainable infrastructure, resilient agribusiness, digitalization, citizen security, and health, where public action and private capital can converge.

For its part, the forthcoming Report on Democracy and Development underscores the interdependence between economy and democracy, the tension between market forces and democratic equality, and how a social market economy can strengthen democracy through investment and employment, the reduction of social tensions, just transitions, and durable consensus. Both reports concur that the State and the private sector share an unavoidable democratic responsibility and must act together to ensure more stable, inclusive, and prosperous societies.

To catalyze this agenda, UNDP is promoting the LAC Facility for Financing Resilient Human Development, which forms part of the Seville Platform for Action (SPA), as a multi-stakeholder mechanism to channel public-private capital toward strategic investments aligned with the recommendations of both reports.

This event constitutes a key milestone in the lead-up to the 2025 EU-CELAC Summit (Santa Marta, Colombia), bringing together political and business leaders in New York, during the UN General Assembly, to advance resilience as a shared agenda for investment and action, aligning bi-regional priorities with the Global Gateway Investment Agenda and generating concrete inputs for the Summit.

Purpose of the Event

To foster a space for public–private collaboration to promote economic growth, sustainable development, and resilient democracies, highlighting the potential of investments in resilience as both business opportunities and drivers of social impact, and underscoring the role of the Facility as an EU-LAC bridge for aligning the Global Gateway Agenda with regional priorities.

Expected Outcomes

• Identification of investment opportunities aligned with resilient human development in LAC, together with their key implications and considerations for social, environmental, and economic policies in the region.
• Promotion of political and business commitments in support of the Financing Resilient Human Development approach in LAC.
• Strengthening of the Global Gateway Agenda as a key instrument for aligning strategic investments with the objectives of resilience, sustainable development, and democratic consolidation in the region.

Sectoral implications and opportunities for collaboration

• Critical resources and infrastructure: water and energy, sustainable infrastructure, and strategic minerals.
• Agroindustry and biodiversity: sustainable value chains, food security, and bioeconomy.
• Sustainable tourism: territorial development, culture, and employment.
• Telecommunications and connectivity: enablers of democracy and equitable access.
• Cross-cutting sectors: sustainable finance and blended finance, transition to resilient renewable energy systems, digital public goods, data, and innovation for resilience.