In recent years, the world has been hit by a series of crises that pose additional challenges to sustainable development in Latin America and the Caribbean. The challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss, gaps in access to health, employment and education, food insecurity, persistent inequality and poverty, forced migration and the rising cost of living make it difficult to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in a region which, even before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, was already suffering from slow economic growth and stagnation —or even decline— in its social development indicators.
