The coordinator of the School of Latin American Development Studies (ELADES) of ECLAC, Felipe Correa, took part as a speaker in the Latin American and Caribbean Multi-Stakeholder Regional Dialogue "Promoting Shared Sacred Flourishing", held on 28 September 2026 at the United Nations House in Buenos Aires. The purpose of the meeting was to bring the faith communities of Latin America and the Caribbean into dialogue with the organizations of the United Nations System, and to explore the possibilities of joint work oriented towards human flourishing.

This meeting deepens the dialogue between the region's faith communities and the United Nations System, which had a continuation in the Interreligious Pre-Forum of the ninth meeting of the Forum of the Countries of Latin America and the Caribbean on Sustainable Development, held in April 2026 in Santiago, and which is now taken up again in this space of encounter between faith traditions and the development agenda of the System's agencies.

A dialogue between the UN system and faith communities

The event was opened by Rafael Ramírez Mesec, Resident Coordinator a.i. of the United Nations System in Argentina and Representative of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in the country, together with Claudio Epelman, executive director of the Latin American Jewish Congress, vice-moderator of the Latin American and Caribbean Council of Religious Leaders and co-president of Religions for Peace International. The first session, devoted to the contributions of shared sacred flourishing to the well-being of people, society and the planet, also featured presentations by Elías Szczytnicki, secretary general of the Latin American and Caribbean Council of Religious Leaders – Religions for Peace; by Msgr. Santiago Rodríguez, bishop of San Pedro de Macorís and member of the Presidency of the Latin American Episcopal Council (CELAM); and by ECLAC's representative.

The meeting brought together a broad representation of the United Nations System in Argentina to present the joint actions of religious and non-religious actors towards achieving human flourishing. Those present included Pablo Basz, Officer for Strategic Partnerships and Development Financing of the Office of the Resident Coordinator; Javier Quesada, Senior Specialist in Early Childhood Development and Health at UNICEF Argentina; Verónica Baracat, Officer-in-Charge of the UN Women Office in Argentina; Romain Zivy, director of the ECLAC Office in Argentina; Nayla Procopio, Programme Assistant at the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA); and Valeria Guerra, Human Rights Adviser of the Office of the Resident Coordinator and of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). Also taking part were Federico Ienco, Director of Operations and Membership of the Argentine Network for International Cooperation (RACI), and Agustina Zenarruza, of the Christian Association of Business Executives (ACDE). Closing remarks were delivered by Elías Szczytnicki.

Shared sacred flourishing in integral human development

In his presentation, entitled "The place of shared sacred flourishing in integral human development", Correa traced the evolution of the idea of development, from the Enlightenment notions of progress to its contemporary redefinition around the human being —from the Cocoyoc Declaration (1975) and UNDP (1990) to the recent High-Level Expert Group of the Secretary-General on Beyond GDP (2026), which defines progress as equitable, inclusive and sustainable well-being—. On this basis, he presented integral human development as a five-dimensional process whose central purpose is well-being or flourishing, and in which sacred worldviews can contribute principles and values to all dimensions of development, especially to human development.

The speaker thus situated the religious, spiritual or contemplative dimension among the potentialities of human development, and provided evidence of its relevance in the region: most of the Latin American population reports practising daily prayer, close to 70% of the world's constitutions recognize or value religious or spiritual beliefs, and more than nine out of ten people in the world report some kind of belief. As key issues, he proposed strengthening the contribution of sacred worldviews to the development challenges of Latin America and the Caribbean, making the shared values and principles explicit, and incorporating the challenges of human development from a religiously pluralistic perspective.

A broad convening of the region's faith traditions

Faith communities and organizations from across Latin America and the Caribbean, representative of a broad diversity of religious and spiritual traditions, were invited to the dialogue. Among them were the Latin American and Caribbean Council of Religious Leaders – Religions for Peace, the Latin American Episcopal Council (CELAM), the Latin American Council of Churches Network (Red CLAI) and the Latin American and Caribbean Network of Women of Faith, the Churches of the Caribbean, the Anglican Communion in Latin America and the Caribbean, the Lutheran World Federation, the Latin Evangelical Alliance, the Greek Orthodox Church of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Also invited were the Latin American Jewish Congress, the Islamic Organization for Latin America and the Caribbean (OIPALC), representatives of the region's Indigenous spiritualities, the Latin American and Caribbean Youth Network of Religions for Peace, Caritas Latin America and the Caribbean (SELACC) and the Regional Ecumenical Advisory and Service Centre (CREAS), along with religious and ecumenical organizations from Argentina, such as the Episcopal Commission for Ecumenism and Relations with Judaism, Islam and Religions (CEEJIR), Caritas Argentina, the Evangelical Methodist Church of Argentina, the Christian Alliance of Evangelical Churches of the Argentine Republic (ACIERA), the Latin American Rabbinical Seminary and the Islamic Centre of the Argentine Republic, among others.

Dialogue between development and faith traditions

ELADES's participation in this meeting is part of ECLAC's interest in building bridges between development thinking and the plurality of cultural, spiritual and faith traditions of the region, in line with an integral understanding of human development centred on the well-being of people, communities and the planet. This dialogue gives continuity to the one held within the framework of the Forum of the Countries of Latin America and the Caribbean on Sustainable Development, reaffirming the will to maintain a permanent space of encounter between faith communities and the region's sustainable development agenda.