In May 2014, the member States of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) decided, by virtue of resolution 682 (XXXV), to establish the Regional Conference on Social Development in Latin America and the Caribbean as a subsidiary body of the Commission. The Conference's objectives include to promote the development of national policies on social development; to further international, regional and bilateral cooperation among offices and institutions; to examine multidimensional poverty and make progress on poverty measurement, inequality and structural gaps in conjunction with the relevant subsidiary bodies that conduct studies in this field, in particular the Statistical Conference of the Americas; to exchange experiences with regard to social matters and support and to provide technical inputs for the summits of Heads of State and Government of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States and other regional forums; and to contribute from the perspective of the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean to the discussions and proposals considered by the United Nations Commission on Social Development. 

Every year since 2007, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has held, with the support of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), the Ministerial Forum for Development in Latin America and the Caribbean, whose seventh meeting took place in Mexico City on 30 and 31 October 2014. The aim of this Forum has been to provide ministers and decision makers with an opportunity to discuss social and human development policy issues, including social governance, youth inclusion, social responses to the global crisis, social policy financing and social stratification. 

In a joint declaration signed in October 2014, ECLAC and UNDP, in conjunction with the Ministry of Development and Social Inclusion of Peru, together convened the Regional Conference on Social Development in Latin America and the Caribbean, to be held in Lima from 2 to 4 November 2015. The aim is to foster synergies and encourage the social authorities of the region to attend both events and adopt complementary mandates at them, while maintaining their institutional identities. 

On November 1, 2016 in Santo Domingo on the occasion of the VIII Ministerial Forum for Development in Latin America and the Caribbean organized by UNDP, was established the First Meeting of the Presiding Officers of the Regional Conference on Social Development in Latin America and the Caribbean