The plenary of the Assembly acknowledged the leading work of both officials in CISS and their notable efforts to transform the organization into an organism with greater transparency and more efficiency in its expenditures.

The members of the Assembly and the Permanent Committee expressed that the founding values of the CISS must be rekindled and made the commitment to support the transformation and the modernization started by this administration.

The ratification of both officials was acclaimed as the result of a transparent and open electoral process among CISS members.

Mexico City, September the 9^th, 2022.- With the celebration of the Thirtieth Ordinary Session of the General Assembly, the CISS (Inter American Conference on Social Security), concluded a week of activities on the occasion of celebrating the 80 years of uninterrupted work of this international organism. In this context, new authorities were elected and Zoé Robledo Aburto and Álvaro Velarca Hernández were ratified with acclamations as President and General Secretary, accordingly.

Additionally, the vice-presidency of CISS was passed on to David Albert Matthias, from the Social Security Board of Antigua and Barbuda for 2023; Gino José Carlos Dávila Herrera, from Seguro Social de Salud de Perú for 2024 and André Rodrigues Veras, from Ministério do Trabalho e Previdência of Brazil, during 2025.

The direction of the teaching, training and research body of the CISS, the CIESS, (Inter American Center for Social Security Studies), was passed on to Emilio Alfredo Carrasco González for the 2023-2025 period. Carrasco González has a Doctorate in Law from Universidad Externado in Colombia and the specialty in commercial law from Universidad de los Andes. During his career, he has worked as a consultant for ILO for various projects, for the Ministerio del Trabajo y la Unidad Administrativa Especial del Servicio Público de Empleo (Labor Department and the Special Administrative Unit of the Public Labor Service). He was also the General Director of the Labor and Social Security Ministry. Since 1996 to this day, Emilio Alfredo Carrasco González has worked as the director of the Social Security Department and the Labor Market of Universidad Externado in Colombia and has led multiple research projects on social security such as “Covid 19 y efectos en el Sistema de Riesgos Laborales” (Covid 19 and its effects on the Labor Risk System); the project called: “Simplificación de trámites de obligaciones laborales y de seguridad social” (Simplification of labor obligations and social security administrative procedures) for the Bogota Chamber of Commerce, among others. His broad experience of more than thirty years and his proposal to consolidate academic alliances with regional institutions were crucial elements for the Assembly to consider his appointment, since his experience has the potential to achieve the consolidation of the academic and research options of CIESS for CISS members.

As comptroller, which is an Ad honorem position in CISS, was once again granted to Nicolás Starck. Likewise, the positions in the sub regions were renewed and defined by the representation of the various institutions in the decision-making bodies of the CISS.

As part of the commemoration, the CISS inaugurated a historic memory space at its headquarters, in Mexico City, with which it seeks to contribute in achieving a better understanding of the broad concept of social security as a human right and as a proposal to have meeting spaces for visitors.

Topics like the multilateral action of social security, the transformation of health systems; the new modalities of work; pensions and the sustainability of social security systems; care work and the new challenges of social security were addressed during these days through speaker panels with keynote speakers and participants from national and international institutions like the United Nations (UN), the International Social Security Association (ISSA), the International Labor Organization (ILO), the World Health Organization (WHO), IMSS (Mexican Social Security Institute, the Inter American Development Bank (IADB), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), UN Women, the National Women's Institute in Mexico, CLACSO (Latin American Council of Social Sciences), and others.

Likewise, the CISS presented the series of workbooks: Cuadernos sobre la respuesta de los sistemas de seguridad social americanos a la pandemia del COVID-19 (Workbooks on the response of American social security systems to the COVID-19 pandemic); a technical note on pension systems focusing on Latin America and the Caribbean and a proposal to establish the Observatorio de Avances en la Universalización de la Seguridad Social en América (Observatory for the Progress in the Universalization of Social Security in America).

Since 2021, the CISS started an administration focused on reconnecting with its members and having greater transparency, and centered its work on research, cooperation and promoting public policies, which is a vision that has led to the celebration of its 80^th anniversary.

During 80 years of existence, the Inter American Conference on Social Security renews its historical raison d'être and its commitment with the American peoples and their wellbeing, promoting the creation of spaces for reflection, research, dialogue, international exchanges and collectively building programs and public policy proposals to guarantee the right to social security.

About CISS (Inter American Conference on Social Security)

Founded in 1942, the CISS is a technical and specialized international organism with the purpose of promoting the development of social protection and security in America. It is integrated by 83 members from 36 countries in the American continent.

Some of the fields of specialization of CISS are: migration and social security; gender gaps in social security matters; the future and the precariousness of work; marginalized populations in terms of labor; disaster management in social security institutions; institutional designs to universalize social security; institutional designs to reform pension systems; social security and mental health; risk and health prevention at work and the administration of social security institutions.