José Manuel Salazar Xirinachs: “ECLAC Should Be a Place for Reimagining and Forging the Region’s Long term Vision”

The United Nations regional organization's Executive Secretary presented the book Rethinking Development in Latin America and the Caribbean: Contributions from the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) on its 75th Anniversary at the eighth meeting of the Forum on Sustainable Development, which is being held in Chile.

ECLAC's Executive Secretary, José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, presented the book Rethinking Development in Latin America and the Caribbean: Contributions from the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) on its 75th Anniversary (Spanish only), a compilation of keynote articles by prominent thinkers and specialists in various areas of development, who offer keys to understanding the region's history and to building a more productive, inclusive and sustainable future.

The publication was launched during the eighth meeting of the Forum of the Countries of Latin America and the Caribbean on Sustainable Development, which is taking place at ECLAC's headquarters in Santiago through April 4 and has drawn the participation of senior authorities from Latin America and the Caribbean and other regions of the world, international officials, and representatives of the private sector, academia and civil society.

The book brings together texts based on nine lectures organized by ECLAC between August 2023 and March 2024 to commemorate the institution's 75th anniversary. The authors include Adela Cortina, Winston Dookeran, Arancha González, Ricardo Hausmann, Daniel Innerarity, Santiago Levy, Aloizio Mercadante, José Antonio Ocampo and Lant Pritchett. "We asked all of them for the same thing, from their own perspective and specialized discipline: illumination. Illumination for understanding our history, but above all for building a more productive, inclusive and sustainable future," José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs emphasized during the presentation.

The issues addressed in those nine lectures illustrate the complexity of the challenges the region is facing: the reformulation of the international economic order in a context of geopolitical fragmentation, reform of the international financial system, reindustrialization and integration of the productive fabric, giving impetus to economic growth, the connection between development and diplomacy, forced migration, the relationship between social protection and productivity, the impact of digital technologies on democracies, and the role of learning as a dynamic driver of development.

In an international context characterized by uncertainty and volatility, the book also addresses the role that ECLAC can take on to continue its trajectory of service for the development of the region's countries. In the words of the Dean of the Paris School of International Affairs (Sciences Po), Arancha González: "It is here, at this time of confusion, where once again we need an ECLAC capable of generating the critical thinking needed to define a new international economic order."

"This is the invitation and challenge that González poses to us and that we accept: ECLAC should be a think tank, a place from which we reimagine and forge a long-term vision for Latin American and Caribbean development, guided by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the SDGs, and a profound history of fighting for economic growth and social justice in Latin America and the Caribbean," José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs underscores in the book's foreword.

The book presented today complements the contribution of the CEPAL Review no. 141. Special 75th anniversary issue: towards a more productive, inclusive and sustainable development model, published in December 2023 and which presents the Executive Secretary's views on the current and future challenges of economic, social and environmental development in Latin America and the Caribbean. It is a call for rethinking, reimagining and transforming development models, based on the identification of ten development gaps and 11 vital transformations, putting emphasis on the "how," meaning the capacities needed to manage these necessary transformations.

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