Mainstreaming Sustainable Development into National and Subnational Development Planning in Latin America and Caribbean

This report summarizes a regional workshop held in Panama City in February 2014 by SDplanNet-LAC. The workshop used a rapid foresight exercise to envision the governance and planning practices required for a Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) country to achieve its sustainable development goals by 2030, subsequently comparing this ideal state to the actual governance practices of 2013 to identify capacity-building needs for the Post-2015 Development Agenda.

• The LAC region has made progress in reducing childS child mortality, hunger, extreme poverty, and undernourishment, and increasing access to safe drinking water, though the 2008 financial crisis caused reversals in some indicators.
• The region struggles with persistent environmental degradation and is unlikely to meet targets regarding gender parity, reproductive health, sanitation, inequality, and primary education access.
• Current development planning in the LAC region is predominantly sector-based, which leads to 'siloed thinking', limits efficiency, creates policy conflicts, and misses opportunities for synergies between overlapping goals.
• To achieve sustainable development by 2030, the report envisions a model of integrated planning where a long-term national vision and strategy are implemented through five-year rolling medium-term plans and three-year rolling sector plans.
• The report advocates for 'sector-neutral' development themes (such as poverty reduction or gender) to force cross-sectoral collaboration and achieve co-benefits, specifically for water, energy, and food security.
• Monitoring, Evaluation, and Reporting (MER) in the region is currently dominated by expenditure reporting rather than objective-based monitoring, though countries like Brazil and Colombia have implemented more advanced systems.
• A critical gap in the region is the lack of a common national development vision, which fragments stakeholder efforts and makes planning reactive and driven by short-term political interests.
• The report identifies a need for a 'data culture' to support MER, noting that while federal levels may have the necessary skills, local levels often lack the capacity to manage and analyze information.
• SDplanNet-LAC aims to support government professionals by forging partnerships with existing regional networks such as REDEPLAN and CLAD to avoid duplicating efforts in sustainable development planning.

APA

International Institute for Sustainable Development (n.d.). Mainstreaming Sustainable Development into National and Subnational Development Planning in Latin America and Caribbean. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/sdplannet_latin_america_caribbean_2.pdf

Chicago

International Institute for Sustainable Development. Mainstreaming Sustainable Development into National and Subnational Development Planning in Latin America and Caribbean. n.d. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/sdplannet_latin_america_caribbean_2.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=International Institute for Sustainable Development |title=Mainstreaming Sustainable Development into National and Subnational Development Planning in Latin America and Caribbean |url=https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/sdplannet_latin_america_caribbean_2.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{internationalinstituteforsustainabledevelopmentndmainstreaming, author = {{International Institute for Sustainable Development}}, title = {{Mainstreaming Sustainable Development into National and Subnational Development Planning in Latin America and Caribbean}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, url = {https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/sdplannet_latin_america_caribbean_2.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }