Latin America and the Caribbean is going through a difficult economic, political and social phase but has the opportunity to change its development trajectory towards more inclusive growth, with more sustainable investment and consumption patterns, Alicia Bárcena, the Executive Secretary of ECLAC, said during the XX Annual Conference of CAF – Development Bank of Latin America.
The senior United Nations official added that the macroeconomic toolbox must be expanded to include fiscal policies that put greater emphasis on tax evasion and avoidance, which in the region represents 6.7% of regional …
“Greater and better governance of natural resources is necessary to fulfill the goals of sustainable development. This necessitates moving towards greater efficiency in the use of material resources, particularly non-renewable natural resources,” ECLAC’s Executive Secretary, Alicia Bárcena, said today during a side event to the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, which is taking place in New York.
The senior United Nations official headed the meeting entitled “How to Leave No One Behind: Sustainable Natural Resource Management,” which was organized by the International…
“The Pacific Alliance is an exceptional example of public-private association and integration. It has achieved great harmony, pragmatism and agility among the stakeholders involved and continuity over time,” emphasized Alicia Bárcena, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), during the 3rd Pacific Alliance Business Summit held today in the framework of the trade bloc’s XI Presidential Summit in the city of Puerto Varas in southern Chile.
The senior UN official called for the mechanism’s member countries—Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru—to gene…
The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) will hold its most important biennial meeting in Mexico City from May 23 to May 27, 2016, where officials will present its 45 member and 13 associated states a report on its activities and will offer governments a reflection upon development strategies in the context of the commitments contained in the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The organization’s Executive Secretary, Alicia Bárcena, indicated that in the thirty-sixth session participants will debate the region’s economic, social and environmenta…
The European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission, Federica Mogherini, reaffirmed today in Mexico the cooperation ties between Europe and Latin America and the Caribbean, and called for building a strategic association between both parties based on a new governance model with equality and growth.
The European official participated as a special guest in ECLAC’s thirty-sixth session, which is being held in Mexico City, and spoke before an audience made up of authorities and representatives of member nations of this Unit…
Official statistics and key indicators are essential for observing countries’ economic and social progress, determining the structural drivers of their growth and shaping priorities. Using the methodology of Khramov and Lee (2013), key indicators from the System of National Accounts (SNA), as well as balance of payments, monetary and financial, and public finance statistics, it is proposed to use a composite indicator to assess Latin America’s economic performance. An examination of long-term trends finds that this index generally captures the major economic shocks and periods of robust perfor…
At the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), authorities and experts discussed the options for implementing active fiscal policies and countercyclical arrangements in the region to protect public investment, social progress and boost growth – particularly at a time of global uncertainty and a slowdown of growth and trade.
Finance Ministers, fiscal policymakers, officials from international agencies and academics from several countries are attending the XXVIII Regional Seminar on Fiscal Policy, which has been organized in Santiago, Chile, by ECLAC with the support of …
The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) will hold its most important biennial meeting in Mexico City from May 23 to May 27, 2016, where officials will present to its 45 member and 13 associate countries a report on recent activities and will offer governments a reflection upon development strategies in the context of the commitments contained in the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals.
Mexico’s Foreign Minister, Claudia Ruiz Massieu, and ECLAC’s Executive Secretary, Alicia Bárcena, signed the agreement on 12 February through which Mexico becomes the ve…
Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health in Antigua and Barbuda, Mr. Walter Christopher, emphasized the value and potential of the techniques imparted to bolster the efficiency of the budgeting exercise. He was attending the high level briefing seminar following a week-long training workshop hosted by the ECLAC subregional headquarters for the Caribbean.
The objective of the workshop was to build the capacity of public officials to conduct Public Expenditure Reviews (PERs) with appropriate applications for their respective sectors. The initiative complemented the recently launched ECLAC d…
The main objective of this toolkit is to exhibit and disseminate the methodology for strengthening value chains developed by the Subregional Headquarters in Mexico of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). This document lays out the concepts, processes and good practices that have been derived from implementing such a strategy. It is intended to be a useful tool for public sector decision makers, officials of international bodies and those studying the topic, who are interested in a systematised and proven methodology.
This manual was prepared in response to forma…
Latin America and the Caribbean and the European Union should take advantage of their shared values and the existence of strong complementarities to contribute to producing an environmental big push that enables a move towards new development paths, Alicia Bárcena, the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), stated today.
The senior United Nations official participated in the Meeting of Foreign Ministers and the XLVIII Meeting of High-Level Officials of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and the European Union, which…
On an official visit to Chile, the Speaker of the Swedish Parliament Urban Ahlin participated on Monday, March 7 in a round table at the headquarters of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in Santiago, in which they addressed the region’s economic, social and environmental challenges.
The senior official and his delegation, formed by Kiefer Jakob, Sweden’s Ambassador to Chile and other representatives of the Swedish Parliament, the Embassy of Sweden in Chile and the Chilean-Swedish Institute of Culture, were received by ECLAC’s Deputy Executive Secretary, Antoni…
This document, prepared by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) Washington Office, presents and analyzes the most recent developments…
A recent training workshop facilitated by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) subregional headquarters for the Caribbean has “opened the eyes” of the Ministry of Finance of Saint Kitts and Nevis on how budgeting can be done “better”, according to Mr. Calvin Edwards, Deputy Financial Secretary in the Ministry of Finance. The objective of the workshop was to build the capacity of public officials to conduct Public Expenditure Reviews (PERs) with applications to their respective sectors.
PERs are intended to align expenditures with government’s pri…
A proposal to address the Caribbean’s high debt burden and strategies to achieve sustainable development in the region will be the focus of discussions when two important meetings of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC): the Caribbean Development Roundtable (CDR) and the Caribbean Development and Cooperation Committee (CDCC) convene in Basseterre, Saint Kitts and Nevis, on 21 and 22 April 2016, respectively.
The CDR brings together senior level policymakers from governments of the Caribbean; officials of the United Nations system; representatives of regiona…
Twenty Government officials from Belize benefited from a one week workshop to build capacity in Conducting Public Expenditure Reviews (PERs), focusing on Applications for Education, Health, Agriculture and Social Protection. PERs are intended to align expenditures with government’s priorities. They are also intended to provide savings, either from expenditure reallocation or by reducing unproductive expenditures. In addition they improve fiscal management and can provide fiscal space especially when a country is experiencing high debt levels.
The workshop conducted by ECLAC Caribbean, wh…
Under the auspices of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), two important initiatives were undertaken to assist the Philippines to develop, design and implement an effective unemployment protection scheme. These initiatives included: 1) a study tour for officials and policy makers from the Philippines on Viet Nam’s Unemployment Insurance Scheme and 2) a workshop on implementing reforms on the Philippines’ protection from unemployment schemes.…
The survey provides an overview of the economic performance for 2014 of the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Guyana, Jamaica, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago plus the eight member states of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU) and the outlook for 2015. Data were collected from a review of reports from national governments and through interviews with government officials in each of the countries analyzed.…
The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) has provided a “strong answer” to what senior public officials across the Caribbean have been searching for in order to improve the budgeting process of public administrations, according to the participants of a week-long regional training workshop that provided officials with robust tools and techniques necessary for more effective management of public finances.
Public Expenditure Reviews (PERs) are intended to align public sector expenditure with the priorities of national governments. They also promote increased savings, ei…