Population, territory and sustainable development

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Chapter I
INTRODUCTION
The ECLAC Ad Hoc Committee on Population and Development was established during the twenty-fifth
session of ECLAC and met for the first time during the following session, held in San José in April 1996.
Its objective is to ensure adequate implementation, follow-up and review of the Latin American and
Caribbean Regional Plan of Action on Population and Development, and to examine the region’s situation
with respect to population and aspects related to the execution and institutionalization of population
policies and programmes (ECLAC, 1996, paragraphs 78 and 99).
In fulfilling this responsibility, the Committee has periodically evaluated the execution of the
Regional Action Programme and the ICPD Programme of Action, examining key aspects of the
relationship between population and development. Among these are population, reproductive health and
poverty (1998); population, youth and development (2000); sociodemographic vulnerability: old and new
risks for communities, households and individuals (2002); population, ageing and development (2004);
international migration, human rights and development (2006); demographic transformations and their
influence on development in Latin America and the Caribbean (2008); and, more recently, population,
development and health, including sexual and reproductive health (2010).
The thirty-third session of ECLAC, held in Brasilia from 30 May to 1 June 2010, approved
resolution 657(XXXIII) entitled “Ad Hoc Committee on Population and Development of the Economic
Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean”, which takes note of the “Agreements on population
and development: priority issues for 2010-2012” adopted at the meeting of the ECLAC Ad Hoc
Committee on Population and Development held in Santiago from May 12 to 14 2010.
Point 24 of the agreements reads “Decides that, at its next ordinary meeting, to be held in 2012,
the Ad Hoc Committee will analyse the issue of population, territorial dimensions and development” and
“also requests the secretariat to prepare the corresponding substantive documents in collaboration with the
United Nations Population Fund”.
As requested by the countries, the Latin American and Caribbean Demographic Centre
(CELADE) - Population Division of ECLAC has drafted this document as a summary, with its own
emphasis and approach, of a more extensive and detailed report to be presented and discussed at the 2012
meeting of the ECLAC Ad Hoc Committee on Population and Development.
The purpose hereof is to provide an overview of current trends, contexts and issues in the spheres
of population, territory and sustainable development and examine their public policy implications. Three
themes run through the report. The first two are laid out in the empirical chapters (III through X); the third
is taken up in the closing chapter. Using the most recent data available (including censuses conducted in
the 2010s), the first theme describes and tracks location and spatial mobility patterns for the population of
Latin America, focusing on certain kinds of territory. The second explores the linkages between these
patterns and sustainable development in different kinds of territory in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The third offers considerations and policy proposals for fostering a consistent, synergistic relationship
between population location and spatial mobility, on the one hand, and sustainable development, on the
other, in the kinds of territory studied.