Special edition of CEPAL Magazine presents the vision of the Executive Secretary of the organization to move towards a more productive, inclusive and sustainable development model

The Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, announced today in a high-level seminar held virtually a special edition of the CEPAL Magazine, the main academic publication of the Commission, in which he presented his vision of the major transformations necessary for the region to move towards a more productive, inclusive and sustainable development model.

The exclusive issue entitled “75 Years of ECLAC: towards a more productive, inclusive and sustainable development model”, includes 11 articles by leading specialists on the ten areas of structural gaps that this economic commission sees today as fundamental challenges for countries. to advance in transforming development models.

In this edition of the Magazine, the first article, written by the Executive Secretary of ECLAC, José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, who is also the guest editor of this Special Issue, is titled “Rethink, reimagine, transform: the 'what' and the 'how' to move towards a more productive, inclusive and sustainable development model.” It presents the vision of the Executive Secretary, who perceives a region mired in three development traps: a trap of low growth, one of high inequality and low social mobility, and one of low institutional and governance capacity.

Likewise, in order to facilitate a comprehensive understanding of the development challenges of the region, the Executive Secretary identifies a “decalogue” of structural gaps that constitutes a list of ten priority areas to promote major transformations in development models, that is That is, priority areas of action for public policy and collective transformation efforts.

These include: low, volatile, exclusive and unsustainable economic growth, with low formal job creation; limited fiscal spaces and high financing costs; high inequality and low social mobility and cohesion; insufficient regional economic integration; important gaps in social protection; intraregional migratory flows increasing in quantity and diversity; weak educational and vocational training systems; digital divide; high gender inequality; and environmentally unsustainable development and climate change.

To this decalogue, which defines a diagnosis and strategic directions on what to do? To close the gaps, a fundamental transversal area is added, which are the questions and challenges related to how to do it? That is, how to manage major transformations? This leads to issues of governance, institutional capacities for effective public policies, social dialogue and the political economy of reforms. In terms of institutional capabilities, these capabilities are seen in four main categories: technical, operational, political and prospective capabilities (TOPP capabilities), which are part of the conceptual framework proposed on how to manage the major necessary transformations.

The decalogue of gaps is the organizing principle of this special issue of the ECLAC Magazine. To this end, a group of renowned researchers and specialists from ECLAC, but also academics and officials from other institutions, were invited to analyze the ten gaps in regional development and also ask themselves the question of the “how”.

“This special issue of the ECLAC Magazine On the occasion of ECLAC's 75th anniversary, it presents proposals with an emphasis on the future and that can help generate a new consensus on development, and on how to move towards a more productive, inclusive and sustainable future. It also presents a vision of the challenges of economic and social development in the region under the new conditions of globalization and the world economy and calls for rethinking, reimagining and transforming development models and policies in the region,” highlighted José Manuel. Salazar-Xirinachs in his presentation.

In this context, the special edition of the publication includes articles by renowned experts on the role of productive development policies to get out of the low growth trap and induce a new growth strategy that is not only more productive, but more inclusive and sustainable; macroeconomic policies for investment and sustained and sustainable growth; the permanent search for integration in the region; the contemporary challenges for ECLAC and Latin America and the Caribbean on the environment and sustainable development; the challenge of high inequality and low social mobility; gender equality and the caring society; universal, comprehensive, sustainable and resilient social protection to eradicate poverty, reduce inequality and move towards inclusive social development; the importance of improving education for inclusive and sustainable social and economic development; and a look at development and rights on international migration in the region.

In addition, this issue includes the text of the XVII Raúl Prebisch Lecture of 2023, given last October 30 by Rebeca Grynspan, Secretary General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), entitled “Dislocated globalization: Prebisch, trade imbalances and the future of the global economy.

After the presentation by the Executive Secretary of ECLAC, a round table discussion moderated by the Editor of the ECLAC Magazine, Miguel Torres, and which was attended by three main commentators: Leonardo Lomelí, Rector of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM); Dorotea López Giral, Director of the Institute of International Studies of the University of Chile; and Cecilia Vera, Economic Affairs Officer of the Economic Development Division of ECLAC.

Leonardo Lomelí indicated that this number of the ECLAC Magazine It is very well structured about the challenges of the present and the ways to face them in the future. “Higher, inclusive and sustainable growth can help reduce inequality and increase mobility and social cohesion, but it must go hand in hand with expanding social protection and the welfare state,” he declared.

“Why do we have low, volatile, exclusive, unsustainable economic growth, with low formal job creation? It has to do with what ECLAC has studied in its 75 years: the characteristics of our productive structure, this productive heterogeneity of the region that, on the one hand, allows sectors with high productivity, with good remuneration, to coexist, and on the other hand, sectors with low productivity and low remuneration, but also that the most dynamic sector is not enough to drag the entire economy and to generate the formal jobs that are required,” added the Rector of UNAM.

For her part, Dorotea López Giral pointed out that without a doubt ECLAC is the most relevant institution of economic thought on the continent “and analyzing its intellectual trajectory is to a large extent analyzing the economic thought of the region, which has been expressed throughout history in proximity to the public policies that have accompanied them.”

“The Executive Secretary calls on all of us to strategically rethink the region. He points out that the task is not only for governments, and here he refers directly to us (universities)… The formation of human capital is an essential pillar to consolidate development. That 'how' needs a dialogue that is not only theoretical or practical, but is a commitment to a more equitable world that provides a better quality of life to individuals,” emphasized the Director of the Institute of International Studies of the University of Chile.

Meanwhile, Cecilia Vera highlighted that, as the Executive Secretary of ECLAC indicated in his presentation, we are witnessing the emergence of a new order, tectonic changes in globalization. “Whether we call it geoeconomic fragmentation, or decentralized globalization, or polyglobalization, it seems clear that this is a new scenario that Latin America and the Caribbean must navigate successfully,” she declared.

“Very interesting changes are taking place, some even a little different from what was originally predicted in 2018 and in 2022 with the start of the war (in Ukraine). In this sense, it is very important that an institution like ECLAC has put these issues on the table so early and is following them closely, since they are on its research agenda. As ECLAC we have to provide a conceptual framework in which to analyze the development policies of the countries and that is, neither more nor less, what is being done,” finally stated the Economic Affairs Officer of the Economic Development Division of the institution.