This report systematizes and summarizes available information on key areas of progress in implementing the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD-PA) in Latin America and the Caribbean. It also draws attention to the activities that have facilitated such progress, and identifies those objectives of the ICPD-PA where there has been little or no progress, or even some backsliding. The report also identifies a series of lessons learned over nearly 20 years of implementing ICPD-PA in the region —relating to achievements and objectives fulfilled as well as to pending issues and emerging challenges— with a view to generating inputs for the population and development agenda beyond 2014.
The report has four chapters. The first provides an introduction, with background that is relevant for understanding its nature, scope and objectives, and describes its link with the more detailed report, which is the reference document for the first session of the Regional Conference on Population and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean. The second chapter sets forth a frame of reference with a series of criteria used in the review that is the heart of the document. The third chapter examines the implementation of ICPD-PA on the basis of review and analysis of the actions that countries have taken to this end. It identifies gaps and shortcomings, and tracks and assesses the indicators for the (relatively few) quantitative targets established in ICPD-PA. The fourth and final chapter presents the lessons learned from nearly 20 years of experience with application of ICPD-PA. These are considered essential for future agreements and work on population and development in the region.