The “Plan Nacional de Desarrollo 2017-21 Toda una Vida” [National Development Plan 2017-21 A Lifetime] aims to develop a society oriented towards inclusive, equitable and supportive development. The plan is built around three main axes for ensuring rights for all: an economy at the service of society, a participatory society and a better state. The plan has two fundamental pillars: territorial development and environmental sustainability. It shows strong links with Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16 (peace, justice and institutions) and SDG 8 (decent jobs and economic growth) (ECLAC, 2018).
The economic axis presents a vision of a social and inclusive economy. This includes policies for channelling economic resources to the productive sector, incentivising long-term investments and promoting food sovereignty.
The human rights axis focuses on policies for promoting social and economic inclusion of the entire population. Among these, a reduction in the multidimensional poverty rate from 35.1% to 27.4% in 2021, the promotion of quality employment and a reduction of the infant mortality rate to 6.8 per 1 000 live births in 2021 stand out. In addition to this, the axis encourages improvement of public educational services with an intercultural focus and environmentally sustainable practices. Ecuador launched a national Multidimensional Poverty Index in 2016. It counts 12 indicators and 4 dimensions: education; work and social security; health, water and food; and habitat, housing and healthy environment.
The state-society axis focuses on the improvement of interactions between different societal actors. It includes policies for strengthening the democratic system and the capabilities of the Decentralised Autonomous Governments; the promotion of judicial security and technical defence of the state; and increasing the transparency of public and private administrations.
In terms of public financing capacities, Ecuador’s total tax revenues were 20.5% of GDP in 2016 (vs. 22.7% in LAC and 34.3% in the OECD). The country has been progressively incorporating new taxpayers into its e-invoicing framework since 2014. Ecuador is a recent signatory of the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters to fight tax evasion.
Ecuador’s international co-operation priorities are aligned with the National Development Plan. The country channels the resources provided by non-reimbursable international co-operation through the Ecuadorian System of International Co-operation (Sistema Ecuatoriano de Cooperación Internacional in Spanish). Priority areas include obtaining resources for the 2017-21 National Development Plan; presenting Ecuador as a donor of South-South co-operation; channelling resources for indigenous populations, for Afroecuadorians, for the Montubio people and for women; and managing resources for the preservation of biodiversity.
Ecuador’s main traditional international co-operation partners are China, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea and Spain. The main multilateral partners are the European Union and the UN system. The main South-South co-operation partners are Argentina, Chile and Brazil. Ecuador also receives support from South-South Triangular Co-operation projects involving Germany, as well as Spain through the Ibero-American Program for the Strengthening of South-South Co-operation (PIFCSS in Spanish). The National Agreement for Employment, Productive Investment, Innovation and Inclusion, for example, was financed by international co-operation resources.
