UCL IIPP and Mexico Government Sign Partnership to Support Implementation of Its Economic Agenda

The partnership comes as President Claudia Sheinbaum's administration pursues an ambitious agenda for economic transformation, including the Plan México for green industrial strategy, the National Water Plan, and regional development through 'polos de bienestar' (well-being hubs). Mexico faces significant structural challenges: six out of ten households lack access to safe drinking water, and 70% of the country's rivers are contaminated. 

Mission-oriented governance, a framework developed by Professor Mariana Mazzucato, represents a fundamental shift from governments correcting market failures to actively shaping markets through outcomes-oriented policies. The approach requires widescale inter-ministerial coordination, with Mexico's 'polos de bienestar' cutting across the mandates of the Secretaries of Economy, Finance, Environment, Agriculture, Energy, and Science and Technology. The work will also inform a different approach to public-private collaboration, oriented around shared goals and aimed at maximising public value rather than prioritising private sector returns on investment. 
 

Mariana Mazzucato, Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value at University College London, Founding Director of UCL IIPP and author of "Mission Economy: A Moonshot Guide to Changing Capitalism", will lead the collaboration focusing on place-based development for an inclusive green economy. She will be supported by her team at UCL IIPP, including Francesca Edgerton, Sarah Doyle, Marcela Chapa, and Manuel Maldonado, as well as Luis Godoy from Open Society Foundations. The work will build on UCL IIPP’s innovative model of ‘practice-based theorizing’, which combines academic research with real world policy making. 

"Building state capacity for economic transformation requires more than good intentions – it demands new tools, institutions, and ways of working across government," said Professor Mazzucato. "Mexico's commitment to shared prosperity and green industrial strategy provides an ideal opportunity to demonstrate how taking an outcomes-oriented approach can tackle complex, interconnected challenges while ensuring the benefits are widely shared."

The collaboration builds on Professor Mazzucato's visits to Mexico in October 2024, January 2025, and May 2025, during which she met with President Sheinbaum and key cabinet members including Secretary of Economy Marcelo Ebrard, Secretary of Finance Edgar Amador, and Secretary of Environment Alicia Bárcena.

This partnership expands UCL IIPP's work with national governments, including collaboration with Brazil's Ministry of Management and Innovation on designing state institutions for economic transformation, and advisory work with the governments of Barbados, Brazil, Scotland, and South Africa. The approach is being adopted by a growing number of countries and city-regions seeking alternatives to traditional economic policy frameworks.

Professor Mazzucato has contributed to shaping multilateral frameworks for inclusive green industrial strategy through her roles as President Ramaphosa's Special Adviser to the G20, co-chair of the Brazilian G20 Groups of Experts for Global Mobilisation Against Climate Change, co-chair of the Global Commission on the Economics of Water, and co-chair of the WHO Council on the Economics of Health for All.
 

This engagement also builds on the groundwork the Strategic Economics Alliance (SEA), has been conducting with Mexican women economists, through lectures at UNAM, and closed-door sessions at the Faculty of Economics at UNAM. This project is designed to bridge this gap by fostering robust connections between innovative academic research and impactful policy action, ensuring that economic policymaking is shaped by grounded expertise, new theories of development and growth, and attention to lived experiences. Conversation on green industrial strategy, and state capacity with this alliance have fed the shape of this collaboration by including the voices of national leaders and intellectuals in a partnership of bidirectional learning.
 

The Mexico collaboration is funded entirely through philanthropic support to UCL IIPP from the Open Society Foundations, ensuring the Institute's independence in providing evidence-based policy advice for economic transformation.