LIST OF WORKSHOPS

The Agenda 2030 and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals were adopted in 2015 by the member states of the United Nations to establish a common framework for sustainable development for the next decade and a half (Sachs, 2012). Achieving the SDGs requires deep, deliberate structural changes in resource use, infrastructure, technologies, consumption patterns, and social relations over a relatively short time. However, Agenda 2030 is not a blueprint for implementation that guides countries on their way forwards. Therefore, the capacity of policy actors to produce the required changes will largely depend on the characteristics of existing institutions and the political, economic and cultural conditions that surround national, regional and international initiatives for reform (Orihuela, 2014).

For developing countries, achieving the SDGs presents some particular challenges. Some of the most easily identifiable include the relative instability of their political systems, but also their deep dependency on foreign investments and technologies, as well as their poorly structured administrative systems (Brown, 2015; Eakin and Lemos, 2016). State, policy and administrative capacities will be put to the test by the demanding processes for SDG implementation that include identifying and prioritizing relevant goals and targets in different scales and with broad participation, producing progress reports that considering positive and negative interactions across SDGs and securing the resources needed to sustain and improve on strategies.

Some Latin American countries have initiated the process of adjusting their governance structures to work towards the SDGs. For example, at the national level, new agencies with cross-sectoral competencies have been created to procure better coordination among public sector organizations. Other changes seek to increase interactions between State and non-State actors across policy sectors or to increase the national and local capacity for monitoring and reporting progress. Although it is too early to assessments of the effectiveness of these institutions, it is crucial to understand the conditions under which new institutional designs emerge, as well as their main characteristics vis-à-vis existing institutions.

The current political scenario of Latin America is highly complex, and institutional reforms are likely to show both convergence and divergence across countries. While some countries such as Brazil, Ecuador, and Bolivia are rolling back the State after a decade of expansion under the impetus of the commodities markets, the political dynamics in countries such as Chile and Argentina announce new revisions to the free-market approaches in the years to come. This diversity becomes a rich context to produce comparative studies of the influence of political instability on institutional development.

In this Workshop, we will survey recent institutional developments in Latin American countries to identify the main areas where institutional change is being pursued and the conditions that so far allow for or impede progress. We are particularly interested in discussing empirical contributions that unveil the difficulties of translating the goals and targets of Agenda 2030 into new institutional arrangements based on comparative studies. A non-exhaustive list of the questions that interest this Workshop is presented below:

·         What type of responsibilities are different levels of government assuming for the implementation of Agenda 2030?

·         What types of organizational transformation are being produced in the public sector to implement Agenda 2030?

·         What mechanisms of coordination are being adopted, and how are resources distributed among participating public sector organizations?

·         Which policy actors enjoy privileged access to the design of new institutional arrangements?

·         How are the complex interactions between SDGs and targets considered in new institutional designs?

·         Which mechanisms for coordination among sectors and governance scales are being adopted to produce a more integrated approach for policy delivery?

·         Are actors discussing necessary changes in policy styles required to make institutional arrangements deliver? How, and to what effect?

·         How are States, including demands from non-state actors in the design and implementation of SDG-related policies across sectors and scales?

·         What mechanisms are states adopting to access financial and technical resources to increase policy capacity towards the SDGs?

·         How are existing institutions for regional cooperation among Latin American countries adopting Agenda 2030?

The Workshop will include the following activities:

A presentation of participants and the Workshop agenda. Presentation of papers grouped by themes will be followed by a discussion led by two participants, one senior or mid-career researcher, and one Ph.D. student. A Q&A session. One of the chairs will perform the function of rapporteur for all the presentation, discussion, and Q&A sessions and will report on critical theoretical and empirical elements discussed in the Workshop. This report will be discussed on the last day of the Workshop and used to design the proposal for publication.

The Agenda 2030 and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals were adopted in 2015 by the member states of the United Nations to stablish a common framework for sustainable development for the next decade and a half. For developing countries, achieving the SDGs presents some particular challenges. Some of the most easily identifiable are the relative instability of their political systems, but also their deep dependency on foreign investments and technologies, as well as their poorly structured administrative systems. Some Latin American countries have initiated the process of adjusting their governance structures to work towards the SDGs. Although it is too early to assessments of the effectiveness of these institutions, it is important to understand the conditions under which new institutional designs emerge, as well as their main characteristics vis-à-vis existing institutions.

In this Workshop, we will survey recent institutional developments in Latin American countries to identify the main areas where institutional change is being pursued and the conditions that so far allow for or impede progress. We are particularly interested in discussing empirical contributions that unveil the difficulties of translating the goals and targets of Agenda 2030 into new institutional arrangements based on comparative studies

Agenda 2030 is not a blueprint for implementation that guides countries on their way forwards the Sustainable Development Goals. Therefore, the capacity of policy actors to produce the required changes will largely depend on the characteristics of existing institutions and the political, economic, and cultural conditions that surround national, regional, and international initiatives for reform. The current political scenario of Latin America is highly complex, and institutional reforms are likely to show both convergence and divergence across countries. This diversity becomes a rich context to produce comparative studies of the influence of political instability on institutional development.

Paul Cisneros is a Professor of Public Policy and Administration at the Instituto de Altos Estudios Nacionales based in Quito. His research interest includes policy change and continuity in developing countries, public policy implementation, and inter-organizational coordination. He has studied the development of mining policies in Latin America, and his main project deals with the design and implementation of policies related to the SDGs in Latin American cities related to water management and air pollution control. His research appears in high-impact journals such as Ecology & Society and Review of Policy Research, among others.

Sofía Cordero is an Adjunct Professor of Political Science at the Instituto de Altos Estudios Nacionales based in Quito. Her current work deals with the development of political institutions in Andean countries. Some of her most recent publications deal with institutional diversity and the participation of indigenous movements in Ecuador and Bolivia.

References

Brown, K. 2015. Resilience, Development and Global Change. Taylor & Francis.

Eakin, H., and M. C. Lemos. 2006. Adaptation and the State: Latin America and the challenge of capacity-building under globalization. Global Environmental Change 16(1):7–18.

Orihuela, J. C. 2014. Converging divergence: the diffusion of the Green State in Latin America. Studies in Comparative International Development 49:242–265.

Sachs, J. D. 2012. From Millennium Development Goals to Sustainable Development Goals. The Lancet 379(9832):2206–2211.