Multi-Dimensional Review of Uruguay
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OECD Development Pathways Multi-dimensional Review of Uruguay VOLUME 1. INITIAL ASSESSMENT This work is published on the responsibility of the Secretary-General of the OECD. The opinions expressed and arguments employed herein do not necessarily reflect the official views of the OECD or of the governments of its member countries; those of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (UN-ECLAC). This document and any map included herein are without prejudice to the status of or sovereignty over any territory, to the delimitation of international frontiers and boundaries and to the name of any territory, city or area. Please cite this publication as: OECD/ECLAC (2014), Multi-dimensional Review of Uruguay: Volume 1. Initial Assessment, OECD Development Pathways, OECD Publishing. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264209459-en ISBN 978-92-64-20944-2 (print) ISBN 978-92-64-20945-9 (PDF) Series: OECD Development Pathways ISSN 2308-734X (print) ISSN 2308-7358 (online) ECLAC reference number: LC/L.3864 The statistical data for Israel are supplied by and under the responsibility of the relevant Israeli authorities. The use of such data by the OECD is without prejudice to the status of the Golan Heights, East Jerusalem and Israeli settlements in the West Bank under the terms of international law. Photo credits: © Cover design by the OECD Development Centre based on images of isac babel, ElOjoTorpe/Moment Open/Getty Images and VikaSuh, Chaikovskiy Igor, taraki, Toniflap/Shutterstock.com. Corrigenda to OECD publications may be found on line at: www.oecd.org/about/publishing/corrigenda.htm. © OECD/UN-ECLAC 2014 You can copy, download or print OECD content for your own use, and you can include excerpts from OECD publications, databases and multimedia products in your own documents, presentations, blogs, websites and teaching materials, provided that suitable acknowledgment of the source and copyright owner is given. All requests for public or commercial use and translation rights should be submitted to [email protected]. Requests for permission to photocopy portions of this material for public or commercial use shall be addressed directly to the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) at [email protected] or the Centre français d’exploitation du droit de copie (CFC) at [email protected]. FOREWORD Foreword Economic growth is just one facet of development. Policy makers are focused on ensuring that their country's development path is sustainable and that the lives of citizens improve, which calls for the need to reconcile economic, social and environmental objectives. OECD Development Pathways is a new series that looks at multiple development objectives beyond an exclusive focus on growth. It recognises that well-being is part of development and aims to help developing countries identify binding constraints to more equitable and sustainable growth by undertaking a multi-dimensional country review (MDCR). Governments trying to achieve economic, social and environmental objectives need to understand the constraints they face and to develop comprehensive and well-sequenced strategies for reform. MDCRs take a cross-cutting, rather than a sectoral perspective, which allows for the discussion of policy interactions. Uruguay is the second country to undertake a multi-dimensional review, and the first one in Latin America. The report is timely, as Uruguay comes from a recent period of economic prosperity and faces today new challenges, many of them similar to those of OECD countries. While the recommendations in this report are intended primarily to support public policy action by Uruguay's national authorities, the findings aim at being useful for academics, the private sector and civil society. The initial assessment of development outcomes and drivers serves to identify the binding constraints to development in several dimensions. By taking stock of Uruguay's well-being outcomes, the diagnosis aims at identifying areas for improvement in several dimensions of the country's economic and social development. The MDCRs are composed of three distinct phases: diagnosis, in-depth analysis of the binding constraints, and implementation. This phased approach allows for a progressive learning process about the country's specific challenges and opportunities that culminates in a final synthesis report. The present diagnostic report is the outcome of the first phase of the MDCR of Uruguay. Two missions were devoted to the identification of issues and discussion with authorities, private sector representatives and academia. Analytical work is based on available statistics on Uruguay, including macroeconomic and structural data, household and labour market surveys, and other domestic and international sources. MULTI-DIMENSIONAL REVIEW OF URUGUAY: VOLUME 1. INITIAL ASSESSMENT © OECD/UN-ECLAC 2014 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Acknowledgements The present review is the result of a collaborative effort carried out jointly by the OECD’s Development Centre, the OECD Economics Department, the Statistics Directorate and the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (UN-ECLAC) with the support of Uruguay’s Ministry of Economy and Finance. The team was led by Christian Daude, Head of the Americas Desk, and under the direction of Mario Pezzini, Director of the OECD Development Centre, Martine Durand, OECD Chief Statistician, and Rintaro Tamaki, OECD Chief Economist. The review was drafted by Christian Daude, Rolando Avendaño, José René Orozco, Rosaura Quiñones, Katherine Scrivens and Nicholas Vanston. Verónica Amarante, Juan Pablo Jimenez and José Gabriel Porcille participated on behalf of ECLAC and contributed extensively. Significant inputs were provided by Natalia Ferreira, Cecilia Llambí, Marcelo Perera and Marcel Vaillant in the form of background papers. Statistical assistance was provided by Daniel Adshead and José René Orozco and administrative support by Ana Gonzalez and Diane Raillard. Additional inputs were provided by Keiko Nowacka, Gaelle Ferrant and Nayibe Tavares-Abel (Development Centre), Virginia Robano (Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs and Local Development), Ian Hawkesworth (Public Governance and Territorial Development Directorate) and Andrea Goldstein (Directorate for Financial Affairs). The authors are grateful for insightful comments by Carlos Alvarez, Ania Jankowska, Angel Melguizo, Sebastián Nieto-Parra, José Ramón Perea, Jan Rielaender and Juan Vazquez Zamora from the Development Centre, Nathalie Girouard (Environment Directorate), Virginia Robano (Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs and Local Development), José Antonio Ardavin, Jorge Carbonell, Jorge Galvez, Gabriela Miranda (Global Relations Secretariat), Stéphanie Guichard (Economics Department), Sebastián Torres (National Director for Industry, MIEM), Sebastián Perez (Chamber of Industry), Gabriel Oddone (CPA-Ferrere Consulting), Andrés Masoller (MEF), Pedro Ravela (INEED), Nestor Gandelman (ORT University) and participants of the seminar to discuss the diagnostic phase in Montevideo on 24 February 2014. The team is particularly grateful to Enrique Iglesias and the Fundación Astur for their guidance and support throughout the project. The following ministries and agencies provided useful support during the production of the report: Central Bank of Uruguay, Ministry of Economy and Finance, Ministry of Industry, Energy and Mining, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education and Culture, Ministry of Labour and Social Security, Ministry of Foreign Relations, Ministry of Housing and the Environment, Ministry of Social Development, Plan Ceibal, National Agency for Research and Innovation, National Statistics Institute, Office of Planning and Budget, Banco de la República, National Institute for Education Assessment, Laboratorio Tecnológico del Uruguay, Council of Secondary Education, Teachers Training Council, SEGIB, Fundación Astur, Inter-American Development Bank, World Bank, UNICEF Uruguay, CAF Uruguay, ILO-CINTERFOR, Ferrere Consulting and CINVE. 4 MULTI-DIMENSIONAL REVIEW OF URUGUAY: VOLUME 1. INITIAL ASSESSMENT © OECD/UN-ECLAC 2014 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The diagnostic phase of the review was made possible thanks to financial support from the OECD Secretary General’s Central Priority Funds, the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the Andean Corporation for Development (CAF). The authors would also like to thank for their inputs and suggestions: Mario Bergara (MEF), Gustavo Viñales (CPA-Ferrere), Fernando Lorenzo, Gabriel Papa (MEF), Sebastián Torres (National Director for Industry, MIEM), Lucía Pittaluga (MIEM), Pablo Angelelli (IADB), Alejandro Rastelletti (IADB), Juan José Taccone (IADB), Ricardo Villareal (Uruguay XXI), Fernando Puntigliano (Zamin Ferrous), César Bourdiel (Chamber of Industry), Sebastián Perez (Chamber of Industry), Miguel Brechner (Plan Ceibal), Carlos Paolino (CINVE/UTEC), Ana Inés Morató (MEF), Rodrigo Arim (UROU), Alejandro Zavala (Office of Planning and Budget, OPP), Diego Aboal (CINVE), Laura Nalbarte (National Statistics Institute), Egidio Crotti (UNICEF), Peter Siegenthaler (World Bank), Marlene Sica (Ministry of Health), Alvaro Forteza (UROU), Gladis Genua (CAF), Nicole Perelmuter (CAF), Pablo Roselli (Deloitte), Fernando Calloia (BROU), Javier de Haedo, Rosa Osimani (MEF), Andres Masoller (MEF), Alberto Graña (Central Bank of Uruguay, BCU), Daniel Dominioni (BCU), Gerardo Licandro (BCU), Azucena Arbeleche (BCU), Martha Pacheco (ILO-CINTERFOR), Fernando Vargas (ILO-CINTERFOR), Andrea Vignolo (Ministry of Education and Culture,