Countries Stress the Need to Bolster National Planning Systems with Renewed Capacities for Planning the Post-Pandemic Recovery with a Long-Term View

Authorities from Latin American and Caribbean countries stressed today the need to bolster national planning systems with renewed capacities for planning the post-pandemic recovery with a long-term view, on the final day of the Eighteenth Meeting of the Regional Council for Planning 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 high-level gathering - which took place on October 19-21 - was organized by ECLAC and the Government of Panama, through its Ministry of Economy and Finance, and it drew the participation of ministers, deputy ministers and planning directors from 26 countries in the region, including 9 from the Caribbean.

In the meeting's resolutions, the authorities recognized the importance of public policy consistency for strengthening the processes and instruments of planning for development and public management for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Furthermore, they acknowledged the contribution of the position paper entitled Resilient institutions for a transformative post-pandemic recovery in Latin America and the Caribbean: Inputs for discussion, which was presented by Alicia Bárcena, ECLAC's Executive Secretary, on the first day of the meeting.

The event's closing session was led by Enelda Medrano, the Vice Minister of Economy of Panama, which is the country serving as Chair of the Regional Council for Planning of ILPES, and Cielo Morales, ECLAC's Director of ILPES.

In her remarks, Vice Minister Enelda Medrano emphasized that the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the role of the State as an articulator of consensus and creator of spaces for civic participation.

She also underscored the central role of planning for strengthening the capacity of Latin American and Caribbean countries to respond to future crises.

"It is very difficult to work on the current juncture without a prospective vision that enables us to hold, and adjust, our course towards each of our countries' higher goals," she stated.

The Director of ILPES, Cielo Morales, meanwhile, stressed the urgency of transforming the State's institutional framework.

"If the development pattern must change to become sustainable, participatory and inclusive, putting equality at the center; if public policies must change so they can be comprehensive, multi-scale, cross-sectoral and can contemplate economic, social and environmental pillars; if the way we make public policies must change, so they can be formulated with broad civic participation, transparency and inclusion, mainstreaming gender approaches, the territorial perspective and risk management; then the institutions where plans and policies are designed, formulated, implemented, monitored and evaluated must also change," she said.

In the meeting's final resolutions, the countries requested that ILPES maintain applied research, technical cooperation, advisory work and training to promote multi-stakeholder, multi-temporal, cross-sectoral and multi-level integration of the 2030 Agenda in planning for development.

They also asked the Institute to continue its work to strengthen planning capacities in Latin America and the Caribbean by bolstering national planning systems, deepening and systematizing regional and extraregional experiences along with the capacities needed to build institutions that are more resilient to crises and uncertainty, and by broadening the Regional Observatory on Planning for Development in Latin America and the Caribbean through new analytical products that enable the region overall to gain greater knowledge of institutional frameworks for planning for development, public management and national planning systems, among other measures.

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