Parliamentarians analyze at ECLAC the challenges and opportunities for strengthening and consolidating future commissions in Latin America

Parliamentary representatives from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Paraguay, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay, and more than 30 regional and international experts, met today at the headquarters of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean ( ECLAC) in Santiago, Chile, for the First Regional Conference of the Parliamentary Future Commissions.

The event, which will take place until this Friday, June 21, is organized by ECLAC with the support of the Senate of the Republic of Chile and the Parliament of Uruguay. Its main objective is to increase legislative foresight and anticipatory governance capacities through the establishment of a network of future commissions of the parliaments of the Latin American and Caribbean region.

Likewise, it seeks to understand and compare the prospective legislative capacity in the world and in Latin America and the Caribbean, which represents a unique opportunity for ECLAC to help establish an initiative aimed at strengthening the capacity of parliaments in the region to anticipate and address future challenges.

The meeting was inaugurated this Thursday by José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, Executive Secretary of ECLAC; Juan Antonio Coloma, President of the Commission on Future Challenges, Science, Technology and Innovation of the Senate and former President of the Senate of Chile; and Rodrigo Goñi, President of the Future Commission of the Chamber of Deputies of the Congress of Uruguay.

In his welcoming remarks, the Executive Secretary of ECLAC pointed out that the lack of capacities for foresight, strategic reflection, planning and execution of long-term programs is one of the main obstacles to overcoming the long-term structural trends that characterize America. Latina and move towards a better, more productive, inclusive and sustainable future.

“That is why at ECLAC we are convinced that it is not enough to identify areas of gap and make a list of aspirations about what to do? It is key that we talk about the hows, that is, how to promote the major transformations that the development models of the region require,” he declared.

“At ECLAC we see this Conference as a unique opportunity to help establish an initiative aimed at strengthening the capacity of the region’s parliaments to think about the future and incorporate this thinking into current work. We firmly believe that the prospective and strategic capabilities of the countries are indispensable and must be organized so that it is a permanent exercise in which the various political forces with parliamentary representation participate,” added Salazar-Xirinachs.

For his part, Chilean Senator Juan Antonio Coloma valued ECLAC’s initiative to create a network of commissions to exchange experiences and take on future challenges and the existence of spaces for reflection like this one that allow us to have a better future.

“Political phenomena were reflected only on the basis of contingency issues. But in an increasingly complex world, the immediacy of what is urgent makes us lose perspective regarding what is happening in the future. The world that we are going to build has to have the ability to listen to science to reflect in time on what lies ahead, to assume it as an opportunity. That is why we want to open spaces for international collaboration on these issues,” said Coloma.

Meanwhile, Uruguayan Representative Rodrigo Goñi explained that the future is coming quickly and very complicated. If we don’t all take action, that ship is going to perish. The challenges, the threats, involve human survival, he said.

“We are at an inflection point. We have an enormous responsibility to anticipate possible futures to transform them, because if we do not try we are greatly irresponsible and it is ethically unforgivable. We must help our people understand what is happening, what we have ahead, the threats and the enormous opportunities… If we do our homework with all the technological and scientific development that exists, we can reach that positioning that we want to achieve,” he emphasized. Goñi.

After the opening session, the Executive Secretary of ECLAC made a presentation entitled Rethink, reimagine, transform: The whats and hows to move towards a more productive, inclusive and sustainable development model, where he reiterated that Latin America and the Caribbean is a region mired in three development traps: 1) Low economic growth; 2) High inequality and low social mobility; and 3) Low institutional capacities and ineffective governance.

“Between 2014 and 2023, the average growth in Latin America and the Caribbean was 0.8%. This is less than the 2% it grew in the lost decade of the 1980s. The low growth is not only a temporary problem, but also reflects the lower growth of the region’s trend product,” warned José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs.

“To promote major transformations in development models, ECLAC has presented a ‘decalogue’ of gaps or structural challenges that constitutes a list of 10 priority areas, among them low, volatile, exclusive and unsustainable economic growth, with low job creation. formal employment; limited fiscal spaces and high financing costs; high inequality and low social mobility and cohesion; insufficient regional economic integration; weak educational and vocational training systems; and high gender inequality, among others,” said the senior United Nations official.

“But it is not enough to diagnose and indicate what to do to face the full magnitude of the development challenges that characterize countries. You have to pay special attention to how to do it. That is why ECLAC works more intensely and systematically on how to improve the governance of public policies; how to improve the technical, operational, political and prospective capabilities of institutions (TOPP capabilities); the issues of social dialogue, the political economy of reforms; and financing,” he explained.

He also reiterated that 11 major transformations are required in the development model to create a more productive, inclusive and sustainable future, including rapid, sustained, sustainable and inclusive growth, with productive development policies. In this sense, he proposed a portfolio of driving sectors for the great productive transformation of productivity, inclusion and sustainability: in Industry (pharmaceutical and life sciences industry, medical device industry), Services (export of services modern or enabled by information and communications technologies -ICT, care society, digital government), and the sector of the great push for sustainability (energy transition: renewable energies, green hydrogen, lithium; electromobility; circular economy, among others ).

“These must be managed through the TOPP capabilities of the institutions, necessary to promote major transformations in the development model,” he emphasized.

The First Regional Conference of the Parliamentary Future Commissions will continue today with three other sessions that will address the following topics: Global and regional Latin American overview of the main geopolitical and geostrategic trends. Implications for the work of the parliamentary future commissions of Latin America; The role of parliamentary future commissions to respond to emerging challenges, the cases of climate change and Artificial Intelligence; and Experiences of parliamentary future commissions in Latin American countries and new initiatives. Cases of formulation of public policies for development.

Four other sessions will be held on Friday, June 21: The state of the art in parliamentary future commissions in the world. Successful experiences; Capacities for Anticipatory Governance and legislative foresight: Tools, mechanisms and approaches to strengthen legislative innovation and adaptation. Cases; Challenges and opportunities for the strengthening and consolidation of parliamentary future commissions in Latin America, and Strategies for the promotion of prospective culture in Latin American parliaments; and Recommendations and commitments to establish a network aimed at strengthening anticipatory legislative governance and the work of future commissions in Latin American parliaments.

Prominent political representatives from the Senate of Chile, the Senate of Brazil, the Congress of Uruguay, the Legislative Assembly of Costa Rica, the European Parliament, the Latin American and Caribbean Parliament (PARLATINO), the Office of the Prime Minister of Singapore, and the Parliament of Finland, as well as senior managers and experts from international organizations, such as the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), ECLAC, the Center Global Network of Futures Labs of the United Nations (Futures Lab), the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). Renowned academics from the Paris School of International Affairs (PSIA SciencesPo), the University of the Basque Country, and the University of Turku (Finland) will also participate.