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

The report details a rapid foresight exercise and backcasting analysis conducted with 18 practitioners from Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) to identify gaps in sustainable development planning. It emphasizes the need to transition from siloed, sector-based planning to integrated, multistakeholder processes that align national visions with subnational implementation. The document outlines a capacity-building agenda for 2014-2015 focusing on vertical and horizontal collaboration, cross-cutting policies for water, energy, and food security, and the shift from expenditure-based reporting to objective-based monitoring, evaluation, and reporting (MER). It also maps existing regional networks, such as REDEPLAN and CLAD, to coordinate knowledge sharing and avoid duplication of efforts.

• The Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region has seen progress in reducing extreme poverty, hunger, and child mortality, but has failed to halt environmental degradation and is unlikely to meet targets for gender parity, sanitation, and inequality.
• Development planning in the LAC region is predominantly sector-based, which limits efficiency, creates policy conflicts, and prevents the realization of synergies between overlapping goals.
• Effective sustainable development planning requires a transition to integrated models where a long-term national vision is translated into multi-decadal strategies and five-year rolling medium-term plans, incorporating both top-down and bottom-up governance.
• There is a critical need for cross-cutting policies that generate co-benefits across sectors, particularly for water, energy, and food security, to move away from the inefficient 'silo model' of resource allocation.
• Current monitoring, reporting, and accountability (MER) practices in the region are largely focused on expenditure reporting rather than the achievement of specific development objectives.
• A robust MER framework for the Post-2015 era requires SMART goals, robust data sets, and a cultural shift toward evidence-based policy formulation and investment decisions.
• Stakeholder engagement is often hindered by short-term political interests, a lack of evidence-based planning, and insufficient capacity at the subnational level to participate meaningfully.
• The report identifies several existing regional networks, including REDEPLAN, CLAD, and ICLEI, and recommends that SDplanNet-LAC forge partnerships with them to avoid duplicating efforts in sustainable development planning.

APA

Tulsie, B., Paas, L., & Swanson, D. (2014). Mainstreaming Sustainable Development into National and Subnational Development Planning in Latin America and Caribbean. International Institute for Sustainable Development. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/sdplannet_latin_america_caribbean_2.pdf

Chicago

Tulsie, Bishunarine, Leslie Paas, and Darren Swanson. Mainstreaming Sustainable Development into National and Subnational Development Planning in Latin America and Caribbean. International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2014. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/sdplannet_latin_america_caribbean_2.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Tulsie |first1=Bishunarine |last2=Paas |first2=Leslie |last3=Swanson |first3=Darren |title=Mainstreaming Sustainable Development into National and Subnational Development Planning in Latin America and Caribbean |publisher=International Institute for Sustainable Development |date=June 2014 |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{tulsie2014mainstreaming, author = {Tulsie, Bishunarine and Paas, Leslie and Swanson, Darren}, title = {{Mainstreaming Sustainable Development into National and Subnational Development Planning in Latin America and Caribbean}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2014}, month = jun, url = {https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/sdplannet_latin_america_caribbean_2.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }