On Wednesday, May 15, the academics Dr. Gonzalo Delamaza and Hernan Frigolett, of the University’s Center for Regional Development Studies and Public Policy (CEREDA),presented themselves in the second version of the international seminar “Governing the Future: Trust, public innovation and institutional capacities for sustainable development. Beyond SDG 16 Peace, justice and strong institutions”, organized by the Latin American and Caribbean Institute for Economic and Social Planning (ILPES) of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), in Santiago.

Specifically, CEDER researchers presented the paper “Social and productive innovation and regional economy. The case of dairy products in the Los Lagos region”, in the fourth of the five discussion panels, entitled “Innovation and institutional capacities for sustainable development”.

In his presentation, Dr. Gonzalo Delamaza reflected about the barriers and advances in social innovation in the dairy productive sector, mainly in the regions of Los Ríos and Los Lagos. He also analyzed regional productive and economic conditions as a key factor for scaling up innovations.

“Several years ago I directed the Social Innovation program and the problem was not the lack of innovators but the ‘scaling up’, that is, turning that into a policy, taking it to the national level or even extending it to more than one service,” he said.

He also reviewed some public policy challenges “to think about business innovation linked to territorial development.”

For his part, Hernán Frigolett concluded in his presentation that to advance in social innovation it is necessary to integrate from a “regional/national perspective for a development and decentralization approach, especially in territorially concentrated areas”.

In turn, he pointed out that “the natural resources sector tends to rentierism and does not promote innovation,” adding that “public policy instruments (cluster, agency, FIC) have not been up to par.”

Finally, he stressed that the main challenges are in the “continuity, integrality, regional autonomy and evaluation of impacts on the territory.”

Along with the academics of CEDER, the panel was composed of Rafael Ariztía, special advisor on Modernization of the State of the Presidency of Chile; Carlos Vignolo, professor at the Universidad de Chile; Xavier Mancero, officer-in-charge, Statistics Division-ECLAC; and Cristián Pliscoff, professor at the Institute of Public Affairs (INAP) of the Universidad de Chile, who was also in charge of moderating.

2030 Agenda

Together with ILPES/ECLAC, the seminar was co-organized by INAP of the Universidad de Chile; the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) and the Research Group on Government, Administration and Public Policies (GIGAPP).

It should be noted that this meeting aims to promote reflection and debate on state configurations, institutional capacities and spaces for work possibilities among the different actors that are required to successfully undertake the challenges of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development at the regional level.

In its 2019 version, the seminar had five panels, each with the participation of representatives of government, academia and civil society. In total, more than 18 panelists participated who addressed issues of trust, public innovation and institutional capacities for sustainable development.

Specifically, the panels on the first day (May 14) addressed topics such as modernization of the State, trust, institutional capacities, ethics, probity, integrity and tools for innovation in public administration. Specifically, the panels on the first day (May 14) addressed topics such as modernization of the State, trust, institutional capacities, ethics, probity, integrity and tools for innovation in public administration.