8
Agreement 14 adopted at the first meeting of the PresidingOfficers highlighted the importance of
follow-up and accountability as key components for ensuring implementation of the prioritymeasures of
the Montevideo Consensus. In this same vein, the working group decided to take into account any
existing tools andmechanisms of accountability thatmight be useful.
In December 2014, the secretariat sent tomembers of the working group a preliminary proposal
for classifying the priority measures of the Montevideo Consensus on Population and Development
according to the degree of complexity that would be involved in implementing them, and taking into
account the scope of the measure and its level of generality. The proposal included a first evaluation of
the existing monitoring mechanisms that could support follow-up to each priority measure in the
Consensus. It was also recognized that some measures needed to be treated in a differentiated manner,
especially those that were very broad and stand out from the more obviously operational measures. The
next stepwas to operationalize a group of prioritymeasures selected from each chapter of theConsensus:
these were analysed at a workshop to review progress in preparation of the operational guide, whichwas
held in Mexico City on 26 and 27 March 2015 and attended by most of the members of the ad hoc
working group. On the basis of the workshop’s conclusions, the secretariat completed the guide, giving
operational form to the remaining priority measures, which were submitted for consideration by the
working groupmembers on 20April 2015.
On 30 April, after the secretariat had considered and incorporated the working group’s
suggestions, the first draft of the operational guide was distributed to all the member States of the
Regional Conference on Population andDevelopment inLatinAmerica and theCaribbean. The countries
then had until 20 May to convey new comments and suggestions, which the secretariat considered and
included in a second draft, which was considered by the Presiding Officers of the Conference at their
secondmeeting, held inSantiago from24 to 26 June 2015.
At that meeting, the Presiding Officers requested in agreement 8 that the Latin American and
Caribbean Demographic Centre (CELADE)-Population Division of ECLAC use the observations on the
second draft shared at that meeting as a basis for preparing a third draft of the operational guide, to be
sent to the countries by 7 July for comment by 10 July, and subsequently incorporate the views received
into the draft. The Presiding Officers also agreed, in agreement 9, that the resulting version of the
operational guide would be their contribution to the second meeting of the Regional Conference on
Population andDevelopment, tobe held inOctober 2015 inMexicoCity.
The Presiding Officers also recommended, in agreement 11, that the Regional Conference on
Population and Development adopt a resolution endorsing the operational guide as a technical tool for
steering the implementation and follow-up of the priority measures of the Montevideo Consensus on
Population andDevelopment, with a particular emphasis on implementing the suggested lines of action.
The treatment of the priority measures of the Montevideo Consensus on Population and
Development in the chapters of the operational guide does not propose to establish any sort of
hierarchical ranking, but recognizes the need for differentiated treatment of some of the measures,
especially those that stand out as particularly broad, general or abstract in comparison to those that are
clearly more operational. As well, a number of priority measures are considered, in whole or in part, in
existing regional or international instruments andmechanisms (for example, the sustainable development
goals and the outcomes of the sessions of the Regional Conference onWomen in Latin America and the
Caribbean), and consequently their implementation and follow-up can be complemented by the
mechanisms stipulated in those instruments and mechanisms, or by other priority measures dealing with
the same issues in a convergent and complementarymanner.
