UCL IIPP launches research to inform implementation of the Colombian government’s economic agenda

The project will inform the implementation of Colombia’s National Development Plan, investigating how the design of key institutions, such as SAE and public banks, as well as key tools, such as public procurement, can better align with the missions set out in this plan.

This work, which is just starting, builds on Professor Mazzucato’s previous report for the United Nation’s Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) on the opportunity for mission-oriented industrial strategies in the region, and the public sector capabilities, tools and institutions needed to implement this approach in practice.

A team from UCL IIPP travelled to Bogotá last week for a series of meetings and workshops with SAE and other government partners. The team was led by Professor Mariana Mazzucato and included Jose Alejandro Coronado Arcinieagas, Sarah Doyle, Luca Kuehn Von Burgsdorff, Manuel Maldonado, and Andres Osorio. The team engaged with a number of government leaders, including the President of SAE, Colombia’s Minister of Finance and Public Credit, the Director of the National Planning Department, the Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development, the Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, and the Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, among others. These meetings and workshops explored opportunities and challenges related to inter-ministerial coordination of climate strategies, maximizing the public value of public assets, and approaches to public-private collaboration that better share risks and rewards.

Prof Mazzucato’s visit to Colombia received significant media attention. In media interviews, Prof Mazzucato emphasised the importance of shifting away from the old ideology of the public sector versus the private sector, and towards a new approach aimed at designing partnerships between public and private actors that are purpose-oriented and share risks and rewards. Realizing a sustainable, inclusive and resilient economy requires investment and innovation from the public and private sectors working together to achieve shared goals. (Media listed below).

As part of the trip, Prof. Mazzucato and the UCL IIPP team led a workshop with members of Colombia’s Bicentennial Group (a holding company that includes Colombia’s public financial institutions) and the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit to discuss how to bring public finance into closer alignment with the Government’s policy priorities. Professor Mazzucato also delivered a public lecture on Catalysing and Directing Sustainable, Inclusive Economic Growth hosted by the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, and launched the Spanish translation of her latest book, The Big Con: How the Consulting Industry Weakens our Businesses, Infantilizes our Governments and Warps our Economies at the Hay Festival in Cartagena, Colombia.

The project in Colombia is funded by the Open Society Foundations, with which UCL IIPP has a research contract. (The contract is not with the Colombian government). The work is carried out within the framework of a Memorandum of Understanding between UCL IIPP and SAE.  

Insights from this project will be of relevance to different ministries across the government of Colombia, and to governments globally that are engaging with similar challenges. Indeed, there are strong linkages between this project and a project that is being carried out by UCL IIPP in Brazil with the Ministry of Management and Innovation (MGI), also funded by the Open Society Foundations.

Media articles and programmes that covered Prof Mazzucato’s visit and ideas are listed below:

• El Colombiano: Generación: "El desafío de la desigualdad requiere un estado emprendedor"
• El Tiempo: ‘El debate no es si más Estado o más sector privado, es saber trabajar juntos’
• El Pais: Mariana Mazzucato, economista: “El Estado no debe corregir los mercados, debe formarlos”
• Noticias RCN: “No hay redistribución sin economía sostenible": Mariana Mazzucato en Noticias RCN
• Caracol Television: Interview with Camila Zuluaga
• Blu Radio: Interview with Camila Zuluaga (forthcoming)
• Financial Times (forthcoming)

For media inquiries, please contact:

Angelo Napolano, Head of Communications and Marketing, UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose: a.napolano@ucl.ac.uk

Yeferson Asprilla, Communications Officer, Open Society Foundations: yeferson.asprilla@opensocietyfoundations.org