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Transformational change in Latin America and the Caribbean: A mission-oriented approach

This report offers a new vocabulary and framework for policymakers in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as the policies, tools, and institutions to back them up.

CEPAL Report

25 October 2022

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Transformational change in Latin America and the Caribbean: A mission-oriented approach, policy report 2022

Economic growth and innovation have not only a rate but also a direction. Using industrial strategies to redirect an economy towards a more inclusive, resilient/diversified and sustainable growth path means setting clear goals and orienting innovation, partnerships, policy tools and institutions around these goals.

Countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) are very different from each other, but it is fair to say that the region is together undergoing deep political and economic change. The Covid pandemic has exposed underlying weaknesses in welfare states, health systems, and public sector capacities more broadly. The inflationary cost-of-living crisis has compounded the problem, further endangering the most vulnerable communities and members of society. All the while, a climate crisis looms on the horizon, increasing the scale and intensity of water, biodiversity-, and soil-related crises. However, it is the structural challenges within LAC that present the biggest roadblocks ahead: the region’s dependence on natural resources, its low productivity, its weak institutional and governance capacity, and its tight fiscal space, to name just four.

This report was written over an intense period of half a year, with considerable support from my team at the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose and ECLAC. The aim of this report is not to set out a definitive pathway for LAC, but to offer a new vocabulary and framework for policymakers in the region, as well as the policies, tools, and institutions to back them up. It brings a sense of urgency and purpose to governments in Latin America and the Caribbean, one that has been lacking and is needed now. I am fully committed to supporting governments in the region in their efforts to achieve a more inclusive and sustainable future, and I hope this report can help them do so - Preface by Professor Mariana Mazzucato, UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose.

Author

  • Mariana Mazzucato | Director, and Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value, UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose

Reference

M. Mazzucato, Transformational change in Latin America and the Caribbean: a mission-oriented approach (LC/TS.2022/150), Santiago, Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), 2022.