On Friday, June 26, 2026, the first edition of the Summer Course on Development Studies for Mexico and Central America concluded in Mexico City. The course was jointly organized by the Latin American School of Development Studies (ELADES) and the Latin American and Caribbean Institute for Economic and Social Planning (ILPES), both part of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), together with the University Program on Development Studies (PUED) of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).

The course took place from June 8 to June 26, 2026, over three weeks, with 48 hours of in-person instruction, at the auditorium of UNAM’s Institute of Economic Research (IIEc) in University City. In this first edition, 40 students from 8 countries across Mexico and Central America participated, attending 24 classes taught by a faculty of 24 academics, experts, and invited professionals.

The program was organized into six modules covering the various dimensions of development:

• The Integral Development module addressed the philosophy of development, subjective well-being and Buen Vivir (Good Living), poverty (concepts, measurement, and policies), and the Sustainable Development Goals.
• The Human Development module covered nutrition, cognitive development, education, and health.
• The Social Development module focused on social cohesion and trust, social protection, migration, aging, and the care society.
• The Economic Development module examined infrastructure, employment, agricultural development, and productive development policies, and included a forum on industrial policy.
• The Political Development module addressed democracy, institutions, territorial development and multilevel governance, as well as drug trafficking, crime, and armed conflict.
• Finally, the Sustainable Development module explored climate change, biodiversity and conservation, the energy transition, and responsible consumption.

Classes were taught by UNAM academics, experts from ECLAC’s Subregional Headquarters in Mexico and its headquarters in Santiago, as well as distinguished invited professionals. In this way, the course served as a pluralistic forum for thought, promoting discussion, reflection, the generation of knowledge, and the exchange of ideas from an interdisciplinary perspective.

The closing event concluded with a forum on foresight and anticipatory governance, where participants reflected on the role of the State and planning in the face of the uncertainties of the 21st century. Javier Medina, Deputy Executive Secretary and Officer-in-Charge of ILPES at ECLAC, participated in the forum, stating that anticipatory governance means that “governing tomorrow does not imply predicting the future with millimetric precision, but rather assuming the ethical commitment and technical rigor required to design institutions capable of navigating uncertainty with justice, resilience, and strategic intentionality in the present.”

Medina also warned of the need to broaden the time horizons of public action: “We are accustomed to thinking about the next election rather than the next generation,” he said. In his view, “anticipatory governance has ceased to be a niche theory about technological regulation and has become an indispensable philosophy for State reform in the age of complexity.”

Representatives of the organizing institutions spoke at the closing ceremony. Sophie Ávila Foucat, Director of UNAM’s Institute of Economic Research (IIEc), thanked the students for their participation and the professors for their commitment to the course, with special recognition for those from the IIEc. Felipe Correa, ELADES Coordinator, noted that the course demonstrates both the complexity and the comprehensive nature of the development process, as well as of human progress and the public policies aimed at promoting it. Enrique Provencio Durazo, Coordinator of PUED, thanked everyone involved in organizing the course, as well as the students and faculty, and emphasized the importance of in-person learning for this type of educational activity.

With this first edition, ECLAC and UNAM have made a joint contribution to the training of professionals with a comprehensive approach to the development challenges facing the region, particularly those specific to Mexico and Central America.

It is also worth noting that this inaugural edition of the Summer Course was held as part of the commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the founding of ECLAC’s Subregional Headquarters in Mexico.

ABOUT ELADES–ECLAC

The Latin American School of Development Studies (ELADES) is an initiative of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) focused on research and teaching related to the development process in Latin America and the Caribbean. It provides a pluralistic forum for thought that promotes reflection and the exchange of ideas on Latin American issues, drawing on contributions from ECLAC’s various divisions, headquarters, and offices, as well as advances at the frontier of applied research on development challenges.

ABOUT ILPES

ILPES is the leading entity within the ECLAC system for research, technical cooperation, and training in planning, economics, and public sector management for the development of the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. It fosters discussion and reflection on the challenges faced by the State in its development strategies and contributes to national and subnational efforts to improve the quality of public policies and strengthen institutional capacities.

ABOUT ECLAC’S SUBREGIONAL HEADQUARTERS IN MEXICO

In June 1951, during ECLAC’s Fourth Session held in Mexico, the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean agreed to establish ECLAC’s Subregional Headquarters in Mexico to work with the host country and the countries of Central America, as well as Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. Since then, the headquarters has generated knowledge on economic and social development and developed specialized public policy proposals for the countries it serves.