This fourth edition of Government at a Glance: Latin America and the Caribbean, a joint project of the OECD and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), responds to the growing demand for quantitative and qualitative evidence on public governance in the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region. It brings together the expertise developed by the OECD in collecting information on public governance practices based on OECD instruments, with the in-depth country knowledge and presence of the IDB in most LAC countries. Over time, the LAC regional edition of Government at a Glance has included an increasing number of indicators in a variety of public governance areas that allow LAC and OECD countries to be benchmarked.
The LAC region stands at a crossroads of environmental sustainability and equitable development. Governance plays a pivotal role in navigating this transition head-on, particularly given existing inequalities, limited fiscal capacity and declining public trust. This edition’s focus chapter provides evidence on how governments can support a just green transition by strengthening participation and stakeholder engagement in decision making, improving key public management competences, and enhancing public integrity.
The indicators in this edition cover 11 areas, organised into 3 broad categories: 1) public governance outcomes: trust in public institutions, and satisfaction with public services; 2) achieving results with good governance practices: governance of the policy cycle, open government, regulatory governance, budgeting practices, managing public procurement, infrastructure planning and delivery, and digital government and open government data; and 3) the resources public institutions use and how they are managed: public revenue, public spending, public employment and representation, and managing human resources.
This report was approved by the OECD Public Governance Committee via written procedure on 12 January 2024 and prepared for publication by the OECD Secretariat. The work was financed with resources from and technical support by the Inter-American Development Bank. The opinions expressed and arguments employed herein do not necessarily reflect the official views of all the IDB Member countries, or the Inter-American Development Bank, its Board of Directors, or the countries they represent.