Alicia Barcena supports financial development of domestic resources

Alicia Barcena, the executive secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), recently announced that she supports increasing domestic resources to improve financial development.

Mobilizing the countries’ domestic resources could improve the financial development of the area, rather than depending on flows from external resources like Official Development Assistance and Foreign Direct Investment.

Barcena recently gave a presentation at a roundtable that focused on analyzing policy coherence to guarantee sustainable development. This took place at the third International Conference on Financing for Development, which was held this week in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Participants at the meeting may agree on an action plan that will solve this matter and prepare for the acceptance and application of the post-2015 agenda. This agenda is scheduled to be approved in New York in September.

Mobilizing domestic resources also serves to strengthen the decision-making of the sovereignty. This requires a long-term national plan as well as increased tax collection, which is possible through a progressive fiscal structure.

“Development must be generated from within countries,” Barcena said. “We need a paradigm shift that takes us from the culture of privilege to that of equality, with a new equation between the state, the market and society."