About the EU-LAC Regional Facility
The EU Regional Facility for Development in Transition for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) seeks to create open dialogue between Europe and LAC countries on the impact that transitioning to a higher level of income has on the capacity of partner countries to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
The Facility (recently renamed in Spanish as Facilidad de Desarrollo en Transición para América Latina y el Caribe - DeTALC) was created in 2017 as part of a joint effort between the EU, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and the Economic Commission for Latin American and the Caribbean (ECLAC).
The EU is a leading donor to LAC and is committed to maintaining its support to the region with DeTALC throughout the 2021-2027 EU long-term budget period.
The ‘Development in Transition’ approach
‘Development in Transition’ (DiT) is an approach that rethinks the concept of development to support the transition to inclusive and sustainable development. DiT transcends classifying a country based exclusively on its overall level of income. It implies an understanding of development as a dynamic process, where transitions are experienced at all levels of income.
DiT calls for the improvement of domestic capacities and the adoption of more innovative modalities of international cooperation for development. In doing so, it aims to support both national development objectives, and international efforts to advance regional and global public goods.
DeTALC and the COVID-19 pandemic
In the years before the COVID-19 pandemic LAC countries continued to face structural challenges and development traps, related to poverty and inequality, as well as a heterogeneous productive structure, scarce capacities for innovation and low levels of diversification.
These challenges have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, whose economic effects pose a severe threat to social cohesion.
Although LAC governments immediately put measures in place to alleviate the impact of the pandemic, these national responses may not be sufficient to overcome the crisis and tackle global challenges such as climate change.
DeTALC areas of action against COVID-19
The Regional Facility for Development in Transition has identified 5 main dimensions to be studied in order to create post-COVID-19 national recovery roadmaps, fulfilling the European Commission’s objective to help ‘build back better’:
- performance of primary health care systems across the LAC region
- crisis response measures in key industrial sectors
- effectiveness of measures to protect vulnerable people
- impact of the COVID-19 crisis on fiscal policy
- role of the international community in fighting the pandemic
Organisation of the facility
DeTALC is built around 4 main pillars, each tackling a key area of the new approach to development that the Facility promotes.
- Pillar I: Supporting high-level regional strategic dialogue
- Pillar II: Supporting national policy reforms and dialogue
- Pillar III: Supporting regional policy dialogue and exchange of best practice
- Pillar IV: Innovative and specialised responses to the impact of transitions to higher income levels