Latin America was hard hit by the economic fallout of the COVID-19 emergency. This exacerbated already pre-existing high levels of inequality on several dimensions and poses new challenges for green structural transformation and several Latin American governments in the framework of the Productive Transformation Policy sustainable development in the region. Regional integration, especially productive integration in dynamic, green and innovative sectors, can be used as a strategic tool to boost economic development, reduce inequality in a structural way and keep raising the standards of living for all Latin Americans.

Building on successful past experiences in favoring regional integration in other areas of the world and on its lasting cooperation with Reviews, UNCTAD aims to strengthen the design of industrial policy and economic and productive integration between selected economies in Latin America, improve coordination on industrial and trade policy, and ultimately contribute to green structural transformation, by developing capacities to design policies for economic recovery, and inequality reduction in the continent. The project will be carried out in close coordination with several international partners (OECD Development Center, UNIDO and ECLAC/CEPAL) and will focus, among other things, on clean energy supply (renewable energies and biofuel chain), eco-tourism, waste and recycling, sustainable mobility and the use of digital technologies for sustainable development. The first phase of the project, focused on vision and generation of consensus, aims at identifying key regional policy priorities and at reaching consensus among target economies around a common policy platform in environmental-friendly sectors. The second phase, designed for policymakers, aims at building the local capacity needed to formulate and implement policies to sustain green industrial development and successfully linking into regional value chains.