The Challenge of Accelerating the 2030 Agenda in Latin America and the Caribbean: Transitions towards Sustainability. Summary

Enormous challenges face the countries of the region. The risk of straying further from the path towards sustainable development is clear. There is no time for pause, let alone for setbacks. In this context, ECLAC reiterates its commitment to contribute to the achievement of the SDGs by 2030, by holding the annual meetings of the Forum of the Countries of Latin America and the Caribbean on Sustainable Development, providing support for the conduct of voluntary national and local reviews on progress and challenges in relation to the SDGs, offering technical cooperation in various fields, and ot…

The Challenge of Accelerating the 2030 Agenda in Latin America and the Caribbean: Transitions towards Sustainability

The second half of the implementation period agreed for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is now under way. To this end, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) presents herein the seventh report on regional progress and challenges in relation to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in Latin America and the Caribbean. The background to this report is a difficult global context characterized by various persistent crises that have been unfolding for several years in connection with slow economic and trade growth, climate change, forced migrations, geopol…

Report of the Second Annual Forum on Human Rights Defenders in Environmental Matters in Latin America and the Caribbean

The Second Annual Forum on Human Rights Defenders in Environmental Matters in Latin America and the Caribbean was held in Panama City from 26 to 28 September 2023. This document contains the official report of the Second Annual Forum and summarizes the various panels, discussions and presentations. It also catalogues the proposals put forward by the breakout groups, which will serve as input for the preparation of the action plan on human rights defenders in environmental matters of the Escazú Agreement.…

Port Report 2022–first quarter of 2023: The calm after the storm?

Shipping transports around 80% of global trade in goods by volume, and 70% by value (ECLAC, 2023). Global supply chains suffered unprecedented distortions, first as a result of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, declared in March 2020, and then with the outbreak of the war between Ukraine and the Russian Federation on 24 February 2022. Maritime transport has clearly played a major role in international trade in recent decades, particularly since the declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. The Infrastructure Services Unit of the Economic Commission for Latin America and th…

Evolution of cash transfers in Colombia

Social protection programmes have become an effective and indispensable tool for improving the living standards of the poor and vulnerable. This article examines the five main cash transfer programmes in Colombia and studies their history, targeting, coverage, operation and the fiscal commitments they demand. It also reviews the impact evaluations of these programmes and their results on various social indicators. The article is a first attempt to consolidate the information that exists on the subject in Colombia, in order to allow a comprehensive understanding of the scope and challenges of t…

The impact of public funding for research and development on business performance in Mexico

This study evaluates the impact of financial incentives for corporate innovation on the performance of Mexican companies. It also analyses the priorities underlying the incentive programmes by constructing a profile of the types of firm that are the main recipients of this kind of support. Propensity score matching —in this case, matching based on the probability of receiving such support— of data from the 2017 Research and Technological Development Survey (ESIDET) is used for this purpose. When corporate and governments funds are both taken into account, the results indicate that public fundi…

Foreign capital and national development in the debate between Celso Furtado and Maria da Conceição Tavares (1964–1982)

The aim of this article is to analyse foreign capital and national development in the debate between Celso Furtado and Maria da Conceição Tavares between 1964 and 1982. To this end, it investigates how Furtado’s analytical radicalization, following the 1964 coup d’état in Brazil, enabled him to make a pioneering interpretation of the transnationalization of capital in Latin America and the Caribbean, despite Tavares’ criticism of his stagnationist thesis. Moreover, although Tavares was considered to have won the debate with Furtado, this study reveals how her approach failed to define the limi…

CEPAL Review No. 142

Editorial note

Challenges and strategic opportunities for Brazil’s participation in global value chains

The objective of this study is to measure the effects of global value chain participation on the total factor productivity of the Brazilian economy, using heterogeneous dynamic panel models and methods suitable for diagnosing short-run and long-run effects. The study has two innovative features: it estimates the impact of global value chains on Brazil’s sectoral total factor productivity by disaggregating the indicators of simple and complex value chain participation developed by Wang and others (2017), and it uses a novel methodology to analyse the relationship between participation in global…

Progressivity and redistributive power of income tax on wage earners in El Salvador: a microsimulation analysis

This work analyses the effects of wage earners’ income tax on vertical equity and income distribution in El Salvador, by assessing the two most recent changes in income tax —the 2011 reform and the 2015 amendment— in light of a comparative methodology based on indices of tax progressivity and redistributive power. The impact of these measures is estimated using microsimulation techniques. The results show that the tax structure in 2017 is weakly progressive and has no impact on income distribution in El Salvador. On the contrary, the differential treatment that the tax system affords to high i…

The expected effects of climate change on the current account of Colombia

This study examines the expected effects of climate change on the current account of Colombia. We present a literature review that explains how the associated risks affect the balance of payments. We then project the current account balance until 2050 in different climate scenarios to establish whether the impact of these risks could affect the country’s current account over the long term. Our results indicate that, compared with a scenario in which current climate policies are maintained, achieving net zero emissions by 2050 could widen the current account deficit by the equivalent of 4.6% of…

Drivers of the adoption of organic farming in Brazil: a combinatorial analysis

The general objective of this study is to identify the combinations of eco-innovation drivers associated with Brazilian municipalities in which a large proportion of farms report that they engage in organic farming. To this end, a theoretical review identified 11 drivers, which were classified as internal and external to the farms. The data were obtained from the 2017 agricultural census, published by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE). Qualitative comparative analysis was used to identify the combinations of drivers associated with organic farming. The results showed t…

A stock-flow ecological model for Central America

This article presents a stock-flow consistent model for the Central American economies. It is part of a project to develop a stock-flow consistent workhorse model applicable to different country cases in Latin America and the Caribbean. The model’s logical and behavioural relationships are based on a set of stylized facts characterizing the Central American economies. The model includes five institutional sectors (consumers, firms, the government, the central bank and the rest of the world). The five sectors trade in seven financial assets: (i) public debt issued in domestic and foreign curren…

The shrinking State: exploring the links between public spending and class, race and gender vulnerability in Brazil

The objective of this article is to understand the class, race and gender profile of persons who would be most affected if the Brazilian State were to stop providing health and education services. The article begins with a review of class, race and gender inequalities in Brazil, and then examines the role of the State in that regard. The second section presents an analysis of public education and health expenditures through a discussion of the class, race and gender profiles of users and a simulation of the elimination of public health and education spending. The third section contains conclud…

The Hummingbird Vol. 11 No. 4

Sectoral composition, export trade partners and value added: an input-output analysis for Brazil and Mexico

This study examine the impact of changes in the sectoral composition of exports and in trade partners on the value added of Brazil and Mexico between 2000 and 2019, within the framework of Latin American structuralism. Employing quantitative input-output structural decomposition analysis, we identify shifts in value added coefficients, production techniques, domestic demand and exports (level, product mix and trade partners). The research brings out a significant correlation between changes in trade partners and the structure of the export basket. Both Brazil and Mexico display export concentr…

Science, technology and innovation for sustainable and inclusive productive development: guidelines for 2024–2025

The Conference on Science, Innovation and Information and Communications Technologies is a subsidiary body of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and, as such, is a permanent forum for policy and technical dialogue that convenes high-level authorities responsible for science, technology and innovation policies to coordinate action and share knowledge to improve the quality and effectiveness of policies in these areas. The workstreams and areas of cooperation of a regional agenda for 2024–2025 will be determined during this fourth meeting of the Conference. With …

Capital flows to Latin America and the Caribbean: first 10 months of 2023

Latin American and Caribbean bond issuance in international markets totalled US$ 76.4 billion in the first 10 months of 2023, rebounding from the low volumes recorded in 2022. This figure represented a 30% increase compared to the same period in 2022 and was 20% higher than the annual volume. Issuers that have been waiting for lower borrowing costs are gradually returning to the international market, as they anticipate the end to global interest rate hikes while accepting that rates may remain higher for longer. The region issued US$ 23.2 billion in international green, social, sustainability …

Labour automation and challenges in labour inclusion in Latin America: regionally adjusted risk estimates based on machine learning

In recent decades, rapid technological progress has generated a growing interest in the transformation of the world of work. This concern is based on the potential of emerging technologies to replace tasks and roles traditionally performed by human beings, either partially or entirely. It is, therefore, essential to examine and understand the social, economic, and ethical implications of this process and seek solutions to harness the benefits associated with the automation of production processes and mitigate possible negative impacts. This paper seeks to estimate job automation's probabi…