More than 2,300 people from 18 countries have participated in the self-paced course "Introduction to Anticipatory Governance and Legislative Foresight: A contribution to green and inclusive productive development in Latin America and the Caribbean," organized by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) with the support of the Open Society Foundations. The innovative training program was launched on April 9, 2025, in a virtual meeting that brought together the Executive Secretary of ECLAC, José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, along with parliamentarians from the region, and was attended by nearly 600 people.

The course has a high completion rate, with more than 440 certificates issued. The training is a contribution from ECLAC to address the third development trap of Latin America and the Caribbean: the trap of low institutional capacity and ineffective governance. It is an effort to contribute to the strengthening of Technical, Operational, Political, and Foresight (TOPP) capacities, which are crucial for managing the transformations the region needs. Part of the program content was developed from interviews conducted by the Deputy Executive Secretary, Javier Medina Vásquez—the course coordinator—with prominent guests, including Rodrigo Goñi, Senator of the Parliament of Uruguay; Fabienne Goux-Baudiment, foresight specialist; and Daniel Zovatto, political scientist, senior researcher at CEIUC, and Global Fellow at the Wilson Center.

A Portuguese version of the course will be available soon. Additionally, new modules are being developed that will address topics such as policies regarding population ageing, climate change, and green and inclusive productive development, as well as the use of artificial intelligence in parliaments, which will be available in the short term. This initiative is part of the Network of Parliamentary Committees of the Future in Latin America and the Caribbean, an ECLAC initiative that seeks to increase legislative foresight and anticipatory governance capacities, as well as to understand and compare legislative foresight capacity in the world and the region. The course on Anticipatory Governance and Legislative Foresight is free, has no deadline for entry, and does not require prior registration. Interested parties can apply here: https://gobernanza-anticipatoria.cepal.org/ or write to paulina.pizarro@un.org.