Uruguay hosted, this Wednesday the 23rd, the 51st Meeting of Mercosur Social Development Ministers and Authorities. At the meeting, held as part of the bloc’s pro tempore presidency, the member countries agreed to support the 2030 Agenda in terms of United Nations social policies. The meeting was headed by Minister Martín Lema.
Also attending the session, held in the Trade Commission Room of the Mercosur headquarters, in Montevideo, were the Minister of Citizenship of Brazil, Ronaldo Vieira Bento; the Undersecretary of International Affairs and Federal Cooperation of the Ministry of Social Development of Argentina, Carolina González; the Vice Minister of Social Policies of Paraguay, Cayo Cáceres, and the Vice Minister of Social Inclusion of Ecuador, Verónica Cando.
The authorities made a summary of the work carried out during the six months in which Uruguay assumed the temporary presidency of the regional bloc, reported the executive director of the Mercosur Social Institute, Mariana Penadés, in dialogue with Presidential Communication.
The main thematic axes addressed were monetary transfers, migration, discrimination, mental health, and disability and employment. The priority for all the countries that are members of the bloc are the most impoverished sectors, for which reason it was about the deepening of social policies that reduce the economic and social differences that, in addition, increased during the pandemic, he indicated.
In the case of Uruguay, Mides complements these social policies with mental health actions, as a way of accompanying people individually, he explained.
In addition, Penadés announced that the Mercosur Social Development ministries agreed on the 2030 Agenda for Social Policies promoted by the United Nations, which has already been signed by 193 countries.
Also present at the meeting were the permanent representative to Mercosur and the Latin American Integration Association of Argentina, Flavio Chomnalez; the counselor of the permanent delegation of Brazil to Mercosur, Nathanael de Souza e Silva; the head of the Special Advisory for International Affairs of the Brazilian Ministry of Citizenship, Claudia Gauch, and the ambassador of the Uruguayan Foreign Ministry, Luis Bermúdez.
