Last week was the Third Ordinary Meeting of the Latin American Network of Public Policies for Regional Development, which has been supported since its launch by EUROsociAL, EU-financed programme. This network, acknowledged in the Final Declaration of the EU-CELAC Summit, is being consolidated as a mechanism for dialogue on policies for regional development.

In the framework of this meeting, Mexico, through the Ministry of Agricultural, Territorial and Urban Development (SEDATU), assumed the presidency of the network for the 2015-2017 term. The SEDATU head, Jesús Murillo Karam, indicated that “we, the 14 countries that make up this dialogue mechanism, are thus contributing to improving urban and regional planning in our territories. The exchange of best practices will translate into more orderly regional development with greater social cohesion”. José Antonio Meade, head of Mexico's Secretariat of Foreign Relations, which co-organised this meeting, commented that the network fulfils a “crucial” function for the development and integration of Latin America because it makes it possible to share experiences and knowledge.

The opening remarks before the start of the working sessions of the network were given by FIIAPP Director Pedro Flores Urbano, representing EUROsociAL, who highlighted that “working in a network enables cooperation between countries, it makes it possible to join the capacities, and also resources, of each to take better advantage of them, to make them complete”. The activities on the agenda of this meeting included presentation of the Diagnosis on Regional Development in Mexico, supervised by the OECD Development Centre and coordinated by EUROsociAL.

The members of the network unanimously approved the governance model and the work plan of the network for the next two years. The meeting included the participation of the Brazil's Ministry of National Integration, Bolivia's Ministry of Autonomies, Guatemala's Secretariat for Planning and Programming of the Office of the President, and El Salvador's Ministry of Governance and Territorial Development, in addition to other Latin American authorities.