Above: ECLAC Executive Secretary Alicia Barcena (Photo: UN)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Caribbean and Latin American authorities gathered in Santiago, Chile last week for a dialogue on the international cooperation system and its relation to development.

The “Latin America and Caribbean Regional Consultation on Financing for Development,” which was held Aug. 10 and 11 at the headquarters of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, dealt with potential solutions to the challenges of development in the region.

“The concept of development must not only focus on low-income countries,” said ECLAC Executive Secretary Alicia Barcena. “This is a wide concept which concerns the majority of the emerging economies and those known as medium-income countries.”

Barcena said that levels of ODA, or official development assistance, from donor countries were “not sufficient.”

“The allocation criteria, both for ODA and public and private funding flows, which rank according to average income, are not appropriate as they do not grasp the natural complexity of development,” she said.

According to Barcena, the criteria for funding allocation for development must look at the weaknesses and specialties of the region, along with their structural challenges and gaps that need to be closed in regional economies.