Authorities from the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean reiterated today the urgency of more comprehensive and better planning, allowing for the strengthening of governance and the formulation of short, medium and long-term plans and public policies, as well as the different scales of the territory the different actors, during the opening of the nineteenth session of the Regional Planning Council of the Latin American and Caribbean Institute for Economic and Social Planning (ILPES) of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).
The meeting, which will take place until Thursday 9th in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, was opened by Pável Isa, Minister of Economy, Planning and Development of the Dominican Republic. Héctor Alexander, Minister of Economy and Finance of Panama, in his capacity as outgoing President of the ILPES Regional Planning Council; Mauricio Ramírez, United Nations Resident Coordinator in the Dominican Republic, and Raúl García-Buchaca, Deputy Executive Secretary for Administration and Program Analysis of ECLAC, represented by José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, Executive Secretary of ECLAC.
The intergovernmental meeting will include ministers, deputy ministers and senior planning authorities from the countries of the region, as well as representatives of civil society and United Nations organizations, who will analyze the progress and challenges of development planning in Latin America and the Caribbean.
In his inaugural speech, Pável Isa, Minister of Economy, Planning and Development of the Dominican Republic, emphasized that the ILPES Regional Planning Council must establish itself as a real network of countries that interact continuously.
“It must be a real network whose relationship does not begin and end at an annual meeting, but rather defines a work program for collective learning and empowerment within the framework of a common capacity building agenda,” stressed the minister.
For his part, Héctor Alexander, Minister of Economy and Finance of Panama, emphasized that planning and public administration are fundamental pillars that require the participation of all actors, allowing the articulation of efforts, initiatives and resources that lead to the well-being of the community.
Mauricio Ramírez, United Nations Resident Coordinator in the Dominican Republic, emphasized the commitment of Latin American and Caribbean countries to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
“They have been the architects of many successes while also having the responsibility to face strong and complex challenges to guide public policy, especially when financial constraints and limited fiscal space impose priorities rather than serving the most vulnerable.” “The population and the most backward areas need to service their debts or other priorities,” he explained.
Representing the Executive Secretary of ECLAC, José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, the Deputy Executive Secretary for Management and Analysis of ECLAC’s Programs, Raúl García-Buchaca, emphasized that the results of the recent SDG Summit and the proposal of the Secretary General of the United Nations will be presented in September next year, convene a Summit on the Future and reaffirm that, now more than ever, countries need to strengthen their capacity to design, manage and implement public policies with quality parameters that make it possible to meaningfully address the economic, urgent, social and environmental challenges of the present, but with an eye to the future.
“We see with optimism that the region is making progress in this direction: 20 out of 33 countries and more than 65 territories have formulated long-term plans or strategies with a time horizon between 2030 and 2050,” he said.
He warned that, in the midst of the implementation phase of the 2030 Agenda, we are still far from being halfway to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, stressing that it is then necessary to reorient public policies to increase ambition and to give them a decisive impulse.
“At ECLAC, we propose a vision of 14 dynamic sectors that we believe have the synergistic ability to promote multiple SDGs simultaneously. “Obviously, the effectiveness of the effort will depend on our ability to forge multi-stakeholder alliances to improve the capacity of public administration, multi-level institutions and sub-national actors in each country depending on their particular circumstances.” , he explained.
On the opening day of the nineteenth session of the Regional Planning Council, the Director of ILPES, Cielo Morales, presented the position document entitled “Perspective for Development: Contributions to Territorial Governance with a View to the Future”, which aims to promote reflection on future prospects for the development and importance of citizen advice in the acquisition of future scenarios.
“Foresight associated with planning is very powerful because it constantly cross-pollinates and guides public policy for government actions,” said Cielo Morales.
The meeting will host three panels that will address future development as a tool to build better territorial governance. Governance for digital transformation within open government and national policies for territorial development.
The meeting will feature two special events, one on youth, leadership and futures in Latin America and the Caribbean and another on transformative post-disaster recovery.
The Regional Planning Council is the subsidiary body of ECLAC responsible for the substantive management of ILPES activities and is composed of the ministers or planning authorities of the member states of the United Nations Regional Commission.