(17 January, 2014) The Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Alicia Bárcena, held a preparatory meeting today with Peru's Foreign Affairs Minister, Eda Rivas, ahead of the regional United Nations organization's next session, which will take place in May in that country.

After the meeting, Alicia Bárcena and Eda Rivas shared a lunch with other members of President Ollanta Humala's cabinet, among them, the Economy and Finance Minister Luis Miguel Castilla, Production Minister Gladys Triveño, and the Minister of Women and Vulnerable Populations Ana Jara Velásquez.

The Environment Minister, Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, and Development and Social Inclusion Minister Mónica Rubio also attended.

From ECLAC, Alicia Bárcena was accompanied by the Deputy Executive Secretary Antonio Prado, the Officer-in-Charge of the Secretary of the Commission Luis Yáñez and the Director of the Social Development Division Martín Hopenhayn.

These gatherings are part of the usual preparatory meetings that ECLAC holds with the authorities of the country that hosts its sessions, which constitute the most important biannual meeting of this regional organization and is attended by its 44 member states and 12 associate members.

During this visit, the Executive Secretary detailed the central topics that will be presented during ECLAC's thirty-fifth session, which will take place May 5-9 in Lima.

Just as in the past, ECLAC will unveil a main document that analyzes the biggest development issues in the region and which, on this occasion, will expand on themes seen in the last two reports: Time for equality: closing gaps, opening trails, presented in Brazil in 2010, and Structural Change for Equality: An Integrated Approach to Development, released in El Salvador in 2012.

In addition, another document will be released at this session as part of a seminar on the Challenges toRegional Integration.

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