Faced with the current situation of simultaneous and cascading crises facing the region, slow growth and setbacks in various social indicators, it is necessary to strengthen the institutional framework of the States and direct it towards a “new public service” that focuses its action on the people, build citizenship in the territories, seek the public interest as an objective and rethink its relationship with development actors, agreed authorities gathered at the Seventeenth Conference of Ministers and Heads of Planning of Latin America and the Caribbean, which opened today at the headquarters of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), in Santiago, Chile.
The meeting, which precedes the XXIX Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Regional Planning Council of the Latin American and Caribbean Institute for Economic and Social Planning (ILPES), to be held on Thursday, January 19, brings together ministers, ministers and high authorities experts, and the general public, and its purpose is to debate and discuss the practice, experience, and perspectives of planning in the region.
The Conference was inaugurated by Raúl García-Buchaca, Deputy Executive Secretary for Program Administration and Analysis of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and Héctor Alexander, Minister of Economy and Finance of Panama, in his capacity as President of the Regional Planning Council of the Latin American and Caribbean Institute for Economic and Social Planning (ILPES).
In his opening remarks, Raúl García-Buchaca warned that the challenging global context and projections for the region weaken confidence in democratic institutions, which are perceived by citizens as not capable of responding to the increasingly complex challenges of development.
“The ability of States to rebuild trust is a central element to negotiate particular interests in search of the common good, to reconsider power relations in the territory and reach the agreements and pacts that are required to promote a new development model that ensures a dignified life for all and all”, he affirmed.
He pointed out that access to information generated by the State, systematic mechanisms for citizen participation in decision-making, transparency, dialogue, accountability, and collaboration with citizens, particularly young people, can support to weave trust so weakened today.
The Deputy Executive Secretary of ECLAC added that, although it is necessary to attend to the current situation and solve public problems today, it is also essential that States keep a long-term perspective, and strengthen citizen confidence through the collective construction of scenarios of probable futures that contribute to generating a shared vision of the country and State policies that materialize those visions.
“Faced with the magnitude of the challenge presented to us by this volatile context, with a high degree of uncertainty and multiple crises, public management needs to be not only competent and efficient, but also intelligent and resilient, therefore, relational and deliberative. ”, he expressed.
He specified that the current situation, marked by a deepening of the slowdown in economic growth in the region, which is estimated to reach a rate of 1.3% in 2023, together with the persistence of poverty figures (32.1% of the total population of the region) and extreme poverty (13.1%) keep countries from achieving the goals of the 2030 Agenda and its 17 Goals.
Despite this, the countries of the region continue to support the implementation and follow-up of the 2030 Agenda through a growing number of voluntary national reviews and, increasingly, voluntary local reviews, which reflect the increasing importance of the territorial dimension of the sustainable development.
“For this reason, the call of the Decade of Action is to accelerate the achievement of the Agenda through planned, innovative, coherent and inclusive policies, involving all development actors”, he stated.
Minister Héctor Alexander, meanwhile, highlighted the importance of the “new public service”, because he proposes that the State’s action generate public value focused on dialogue on shared values, in addition to responding and serving citizens by negotiating and interceding between their multiple interests and generating a government structure with empathetic and collaborative leadership that builds alliances with private actors, civil society and academia.
“We are convinced that strengthening institutions and their capacities for dialogue with all development actors is the vehicle for the sustainability of State actions, the deepening of democracy and the construction of a much-needed culture of the future in our countries” , stressed the Minister.
The Seventeenth Conference of Ministers and Heads of Planning of Latin America and the Caribbean It has four panels where the authorities will discuss prospective as a tool to build innovative and participatory public policies, the open State and citizen participation at the center of the new public service, the role of innovation in public institutions to accelerate full implementation of the Goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the challenges of a new public service in the territory.
The Conference will also feature two complementary events that will take place on Tuesday, January 17. The first will address the mainstreaming of the gender perspective in planning, while the second will consist of the presentation of the book Patterns of economic development in the six countries of Central America (1950-2018) prepared by the ECLAC subregional headquarters in Mexico.
On Thursday, January 19, meanwhile, the XXIX Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Regional Council for Planning of the Latin American and Caribbean Institute for Economic and Social Planning (ILPES) of ECLAC will be held.
During the intergovernmental meeting, ECLAC will present the report on ILPES activities since the XVIII meeting of the Regional Planning Council, held from October 19 to 21, 2021, and will inform the countries of its work program for the 2023. Preparations for the XIX Meeting of the Regional Planning Council to be held during 2023 will also be addressed.
The Regional Planning Council is the subsidiary body of ECLAC in charge of substantive guidance of ILPES activities, and is made up of the ministers or planning authorities of the member states of the United Nations regional commission.
