On Thursday, September 5, 2024, a high-level seminar was held where specialists and academics from several countries discussed the first edition of the organization’s flagship publication “Panorama of Productive Development Policies in Latin America and the Caribbean, 2024.”
The launching day was led by the Executive Secretary of ECLAC, José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, and the director of the Division of Productive and Business Development of the regional commission – in charge of the report – Marco Llinás.
The event included three panels that discussed current challenges in Latin America and the Caribbean, governance, and the role of local governments in implementing these policies, with a focus on promoting inclusive and sustainable growth in the region.
The productive coordination initiatives that ECLAC has been promoting since November 2023, through the Cluster Initiatives Platform and Other Territorial Productive Articulation Initiatives (IAPT), have been configured as a concrete response to the need for greater coordination in productive development policies in the region.
In this first edition of the report, ECLAC highlights that the IAPTs offer a clear and effective response to the urgent needs of the current context, marked by limited coordination between institutions for productive development. These initiatives not only promote collective action, but also foster collaboration between various actors who share common sectors. The objective is to face the challenges of a productive transformation that is inclusive and sustainable, making the most of the capacities and resources available in each territory.
In this sense, these initiatives are proposed as an effective alternative to carry out the integration of various instruments and efforts under common strategic agendas. At the same time, the IAPTs allow the participation in this design of both the public and private sectors, academia and civil society to generate collective strategies for productive development that optimize the use of resources and knowledge.
A key element of the approach promoted by ECLAC in this document is experimental governance, which allows for continuous adjustment of the strategies of the IAPT as their results are evaluated. This model is based on open and dynamic collaboration, where local actors, both from the public and private spheres, actively contribute to the improvement of the policies and actions implemented.
The publication points out that territorial productive articulation initiatives share three essential characteristics:
- They are aimed at collective strategic plans that seek to improve the productive performance of companies.
- They manage their actions in a participatory manner, integrating actors from different sectors.
- They are linked to a common sector or territory, which facilitates productive proximity and effective collaboration.
From this perspective, ECLAC calls on national, subnational and local governments to promote the implementation of territorial productive coordination initiatives as part of their productive development policy. These measures are essential to address challenges such as low productivity and regional inequality. Therefore, the convergence of efforts between all levels of government and sectors is crucial to move towards more equitable and inclusive growth in the region.
For more information on the launch of the document and the seminar, please visit this link.
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