Efficient and quality infrastructure in Latin America and the Caribbean: how to improve investment performance

This FAL Bulletin analyses the efficiency and effectiveness of infrastructure investments to promote better outcomes and facilitate the closing of the infrastructure gap in Latin America and the Caribbean. The document outlines the importance of project performance in promoting quality infrastructure. In addition to examining the recent evolution of the World Bank’s logistics performance index (LPI) in the countries of the region, it proposes specific methodologies to improve the management of public infrastructure and reiterates key principles for achieving higher quality in project implement…

Sociodemographic inequality gaps in the Amazon region: support for the preparation and implementation of the Amazonian Strategic Cooperation

In the context of this study, the Amazon region is not just a diverse combination of biomes that is of great structural importance given its contribution to the environment and climate; it is also home to more than 50 million people. To enable better understand the living conditions and various needs and vulnerabilities of Amazonian peoples, this document analyses sociodemographic inequality gaps among the population living in the territories of the Amazon region. An analysis of sociodemographic indicators taken from population censuses and household surveys of member countries of the Amazon …

Development Traps in Latin America and the Caribbean: Vital Transformations and How to Manage Them

Latin America and the Caribbean is facing a number of development traps that pose significant obstacles to a more productive, inclusive and sustainable future. This development crisis coincides with an international context that has changed considerably in the last decade —both on the geo-economic and geopolitical fronts— and which is shifting towards a new set of rules for trade and investment. For its fortieth session, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) is putting forward a new proposal analysing three transformations that are vital for moving towards a new …

Development Traps in Latin America and the Caribbean: Vital Transformations and How to Manage Them. Summary

Latin America and the Caribbean is facing a number of development traps that pose significant obstacles to a more productive, inclusive and sustainable future. This development crisis coincides with an international context that has changed considerably in the last decade —both on the geo-economic and geopolitical fronts— and which is shifting towards a new set of rules for trade and investment. For its fortieth session, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) is putting forward a new proposal analysing three transformations that are vital for moving towards a new d…

Report on the activities of the Commission, 2023

In 2023, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) celebrated its seventy-fifth anniversary. Since its establishment in 1948, ECLAC has been a leader in generating applied knowledge and research from the perspective of the region. The Commission’s commitment has remained strong throughout these past decades, contributing to the design and implementation of public policies taking into consideration the needs and demands of member States. This report on the activities undertaken by ECLAC in 2023 highlights the Commission’s key achievements and contributions and is hereb…

Strengthening regional capacities to address the risk of and from overshooting 1.5°C global warming in Latin America and the Caribbean

The main objective of this background paper is to raise awareness and support Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) governments and non-state actors to strengthen their capacities to engage in and/or lead global conversations on how to manage the risk of temporary overshoot and the role -if any- of Solar Radiation Modification (SRM) in the context of achieving and safeguarding delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This document was prepared by Fundación Torcuato Di Tella (FTDT), funded by the Carnegie Climate Governance Initiative (C2G), and produced in collaboration with the Unit…

Medium-term changes in the patterns of internal population movements in Latin American countries: effects of the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID‐19 pandemic has impacted population movement around the world. Existing work has focused on countries of the Global North and restricted to the immediate effects of COVID-19 during 2020. Data have represented a major limitation to monitor changes in mobility patterns in Latin American countries. Drawing on aggregate anonymised mobile phone location data from Meta‐Facebook users, we aim to analyse the extent and persistence of changes in the levels (or intensity) and spatial patterns of internal population movement across the rural-urban continuum in Argentina, Chile and Mexico over a…

The Hummingbird Vol. 11 No. 10

Paperless trade system of the Republic of Korea: an analysis of the UNIPASS and uTradeHub single windows

Over the last two decades, the concept of the single window for foreign trade has become an increasingly important item on the global trade facilitation agenda. Asia is home to some of the world’s most advanced single windows, and the Republic of Korea is among the pioneers in the transition towards a paperless trade environment. This document presents the history and main features of its dual system, composed of two interconnected single windows: UNIPASS and uTradeHub. The experience in the Republic of Korea may be useful for policymakers in Latin America and the Caribbean, where single windo…

Annotated provisional agenda. Ninth Ministerial Conference on the Information Society in Latin America and the Caribbean

Provisional agenda. Ninth Ministerial Conference on the Information Society in Latin America and the Caribbean

Intergenerational relations: creating a world for all ages so that no one is left behind

This paper, prepared jointly by the five regional commissions of the United Nations, explores the social and economic challenges and opportunities of demographic shifts towards multigenerational societies across the countries covered by the five regional commissions. It discusses the latest evidence on demographic trends and intergenerational relations, labour markets, social protection, care, living arrangements and digitalization across regions, and it provides recommendations to build societies for all ages. With a strong interdisciplinary and interregional focus, the paper addresses interg…

Comparative analysis of four advanced single windows in Asia: Hong Kong, China; Japan; Republic of Korea and Singapore

The establishment of a single window is a crucial step in the move towards paperless trade, generating significant savings in time and money for companies as well as the different public bodies involved in foreign trade. Under the Trade Facilitation Agreement of the World Trade Organization, which entered into force in 2017, all the Organization’s members committed to maintaining or establishing a single window. Asia is home to some of the world’s largest trading economies and to several of the most advanced single windows. This report analyses and compares the main functionalities of four: th…

Rapporteurs Report on Caribbean Development Roundtable. Alva Baptiste Minister For External Affairs, International Trade, Civil Aviation and Diaspora Affairs of Saint Lucia

Industrial strategies for tackling the challenges of the twenty-first century: trends in objectives, rationales and design in policy and academia

This report documents global shifts in of industrial policy objectives and the rationales behind public intervention to address them. Drawing from a selected sample of policy documents from international organizations and countries with literature on innovation and technical change, this report presents a classification of objectives and rationales. This classification is used to code systematically the academic literature on industrial policy to analyse changes in objectives and rationales in publications on countries of different income groups. The findings show increased attention to social…

Methodological recommendations on the measurement of the quality of household survey figures

This document begins with a diagnosis of the practices used by the region’s national statistical offices to measure the quality of estimates, particularly those yielded by household sample surveys. A conceptual framework related to the scope of the study is provided below, with a particular focus on replicated weight techniques for estimating sampling errors. Based on the review of the literature carried out, the various quality criteria that can be used to determine the statistical quality of estimates are presented in a logical order, and a work flow for applying the examined quality criteri…

Economic Survey of Latin America and the Caribbean, 2024: low-growth trap, climate change and employment trends

Latin America and the Caribbean is mired in a decades-long growth trap, and further hampered by global and regional conditions that limit the space for macroeconomic policies to spur economic growth in the region. The results of the Economic Survey of Latin America and the Caribbean, 2024 reveal weaker job creation, especially in the formal sector, with young people, women, older persons, migrants and rural dwellers among the most likely to be informal workers. In addition, an intensification of climate change effects will drastically reduce the number of jobs created in the medium term if mit…

Guidelines for mainstreaming the gender perspective in statistical production

In order to generate data that accurately capture the persistence and magnitude of societal inequalities, the gender and intersectional perspectives must be mainstreamed into statistical production. As noted in the Montevideo Strategy for Implementation of the Regional Gender Agenda within the Sustainable Development Framework by 2030 (2016), it is also crucial for “transforming data into information, information into knowledge and knowledge into political decisions” (ECLAC, 2017a). Official statistics are therefore an indispensable source of information for use in the design and implementatio…

The Hummingbird Vol. 11 No. 9

SIDS 4: Now or never for small island survival