CAF presented the 2016 Economy and Development Report (RED)

Today, CAF - Development Bank of Latin America presented its Economy and Development Report (RED 2016), "More skills for work and life: The contribution of family, school, environment and the world of work,"with the participation of CAF Executive President Enrique Garcia, the second Vice President of the Republic, Mercedes Araoz, and the dean of the Universidad del Pacífico (UP), Elsa Del Castillo. 

"Latin America has had a well conceived macroeconomic management and has achieved a reduction in poverty rates with respect to other regions. Now it is necessary to have a comprehensive development agenda with a long-term perspective, which implies seeking stable, efficient and inclusive growth with social support and which is environmentally responsible. For that, to promote a process of sustainable development with social inclusion, it is essential for us to focus on human capital and to provide the entire population with a higher skill level that creates solid foundations for equality of opportunities. In this regard, we believe that this report will be an instrument for policymakers and an input for countries with respect to public policies that allow for incentivizing and training people in order to insert themselves in a global world," stated Garcia.

"The opportunity to present RED is fundamental, because it tells us where more investment is needed, what efforts we need to carry out so that education connects the population with the work environment and why we need to continue working, thinking about building a society that seeks joint purposes with a view to a common well-being as a country," added Araoz.

The presentation of the 2016 Economy and Development Report, held in the Juan Julio Wicht S.J. auditorium of the Universidad del Pacífico, was led by Lucila Berniell, main economist at the CAF's Socioeconomic Research Department.

Afterwards, a panel that had the participation of the ministers of Education, Jaime Saavedra, of Development and Social Inclusion, Cayetana Aljovín, of Work and Employment Promotion, Alfonso Grados, as well as the Director of the UP's Research Center, Gustavo Yamada and GRADE economist Hugo Ñopo, commented on the various topics presented in the report.

The panel, moderated by the chief economist and Corporate Director of Economic Analysis And Knowledge for Development at CAF, Pablo Sanguinetti, agreed that the report addresses a key issue for the region: the need to promote a better development of the population's cognitive, socio-emotional and physical skills. The closing was led by Eleonora Silva, CAF's Director Representative in Peru.

The report highlights family, school, environment and the world of work as the four life contexts that are fundamental to developing and accumulating the various skills that make up the human capital required by Latin America in order to achieve full economic development.  It also indicates that skills development occurs throughout one's entire life and in all of these environments, and not only in the educational system, for which it emphasizes the need to promote public policy coordination to favor skill-building in the population in a comprehensive manner.