The Regional Conference on Population and Development of Latin America and the Caribbean is a subsidiary body of ECLAC dedicated to the monitoring and review of issues related to population and development, such as international migration, Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendant populations, population aging, sexual and reproductive health, and people with disabilities. It holds its meetings every two years, and its Presiding Officers meet at least once between ordinary sessions. It is supported by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

The Regional Conference was created in 2012, when it was decided through ECLAC resolution 670(XXXIV) that the ECLAC Sessional Ad Hoc Committee on Population and Development would be renamed. In 2024, Colombia currently chairs the Presiding Officers, with Vice-Chairmanships held by Antigua and Barbuda, Brazil, Cuba, Guyana, Honduras, Peru, the Dominican Republic, Suriname, and Venezuela.

PRIOR REGIONAL CONFERENCES

To date, five sessions of the Regional Conference have been held.

At the first session of the Regional Conference, held in Montevideo from 12-15 August 2013, the Montevideo Consensus on Population and Development was adopted. This is the most important intergovernmental agreement in the region on these matters.

At its second session, held from 6-9 October 2015 in Mexico City, the regional Conference adopted the Operational Guide for the implementation and follow-up of the Montevideo Consensus to support countries of the region in fulfilling priority measures.

At the third session of the Regional Conference, held in Lima, Peru, from 7-9 August 2018 the countries of the region welcomed the First Regional Report on the implementation of the Montevideo Consensus, which represented the regional contribution to the global review and appraisal of the implementation of the Programme of Action of the ICPD, undertaken by the Commission on Population and Development at its fifty-second session held in April 2019.

At the fourth session of the Regional Conference, held at ECLAC headquarters, in Santiago, Chile from 28-30 June 2022, the countries took note of the document Sociodemographic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in Latin America and the Caribbean, prepared by the Technical Secretariat with the support of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

At its fifth session, held in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, 3-4 July 2024, the Regional Conference welcomed The Second Regional Report on the implementation of the Montevideo Consensus was welcomed. Additionally, the "Cartagena Group" (an open-ended Group of Friends of the Chair on the rights of persons with disabilities) was created to advance the inclusion of this population.

During the sixth meeting of the Presiding Officers of the Regional Conference, held in Santiago, 29-30 October 2025, the document Persons with disabilities: from statistical visibility to the exercise of rights was presented. At the end of this meeting, the Government of Uruguay expressed its interest in hosting the sixth session of the Regional Conference.