The Latin American and Caribbean region is facing a scenario that offers opportunities, yet is also shadowed by global uncertainties at a time when the region’s economies are in need of profound and urgent changes. Moving towards greater equality is not only an ethical obligation in a region with multiple social gaps, but also a necessary condition for accelerating productivity growth, internalizing and disseminating the digital revolution, making the transition to environmental sustainability and establishing an institutional framework for action in a world in which major imbalances exist alongside enormous potential. 

Although economic growth has picked up in most of the countries of the region in the last year, its long-run dynamics remain limited by a macroeconomy that does not encourage investment or diversification of production, and constrained by insufficient incorporation of technologies, wide social gaps and increasing environmental costs. It is vital to undo these limitations and explore more fully the complementarities that exist between equality, production efficiency and environmental sustainability. Accordingly, and in line with the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals, this document focuses on three pillars of action and the synergies between them: a macroeconomy for development; a welfare State based on rights and productivity gains; and decarbonization of the production structure, cities and energy sources