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 LOCALWednesday 8 March 2017

ECLAC Promotes Big Data Analytics for Sustainable
Development of Latin America and the Caribbean

-During a seminar held in      Executive secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin                              data actors, who are most-     and Telecommunications.
Santiago, Chile, the Unit-     America and the Caribbean (Eclac) Alicia Bárcena.                                     ly private,” the Executive     Rodrigo Ramírez stressed
ed Nations regional body                                                                                             Secretary of the Economic      that “in emergency con-
presented a project that                                                                              (ECLAC Photo)  Commission for Latin Amer-     texts, such as those Chile
seeks to improve national                                                                                            ica and the Caribbean          is accustomed to facing
capabilities for measuring     take place, according to     “One of our region’s main                                (ECLAC), Alicia Bárcena,       on a permanent basis, the
the digital economy in the     the specialists gathered at  challenges is establishing                               said at the inauguration of    world of big data manage-
region.                        a seminar held on 6 March    a true dialogue between                                  the seminar Think Big: Data    ment becomes a crucial
                               at ECLAC’s headquarters in   national statistics offices                              innovation in Latin America    matter, including for saving
SANTIAGO, CHILE - Big data     Santiago, Chile.             and the most important big                               and the Caribbean, orga-       lives.” He also underlined
analytics can improve de-                                                                                            nized jointly with the MIT     the importance of creating
cision-making in critical ar-                                                                                        Sloan School of Manage-        a regional digital market
eas for development, such                                                                                            ment’s Latin America Of-       that can harness the digital
as health, employment,                                                                                               fice and the Brazil-based      potential of Latin America
productivity, security and                                                                                           Regional Center for Studies    and the Caribbean.
natural disaster manage-                                                                                             on the Development of the      Alexandre Barbosa, mean-
ment, to name a few, but                                                                                             Information Society (CETIC.    while, indicated that “mea-
for this to happen new al-                                                                                           br).                           surement plays a central
liances must be forged be-                                                                                           During the gathering,          role in the international
tween all actors involved                                                                                            ECLAC officially launched      agenda on sustainable de-
and true educational and                                                                                             the project “Big data for      velopment” and that bod-
cultural revolutions must                                                                                            measuring and foster-          ies such as ECLAC can play
                                                                                                                     ing the digital economy        a very important role in
                                                                                                                     in Latin America and the       promoting debate and re-
                                                                                                                     Caribbean,” financed by        flecting upon the new tools
                                                                                                                     the United Nations Devel-      needed to monitor country
                                                                                                                     opment Account (UNDA),         progress on compliance
                                                                                                                     which seeks to improve na-     with the Sustainable Devel-
                                                                                                                     tional capabilities for mea-   opment Goals (SDGs).
                                                                                                                     suring the digital economy     Roberto Rigobon, of MIT,
                                                                                                                     and designing evidence-        also valued the leadership
                                                                                                                     based policies, by combin-     shown by ECLAC in study-
                                                                                                                     ing big data analytics with    ing issues related to the
                                                                                                                     traditional statistical tech-  information society in Latin
                                                                                                                     niques.                        America and the Caribbe-
                                                                                                                     “Latin America and the Ca-     an. According to him, tak-
                                                                                                                     ribbean has shown much         ing advantage of big data
                                                                                                                     progress in the Internet of    implies true revolutions in
                                                                                                                     consumption but not in the     both educational and cul-
                                                                                                                     Internet of production,” Ali-  tural arenas, and so he
                                                                                                                     cia Bárcena emphasized         called on national statistics
                                                                                                                     during her presentation.       offices and universities to
                                                                                                                     Other participants in the      modernize and not let the
                                                                                                                     event’s inauguration in-       opportunity to participate
                                                                                                                     cluded Rodrigo Ramírez,        in this process pass them
                                                                                                                     Chile’s Telecommunica-         by. The presentations by
                                                                                                                     tions Undersecretary; Al-      Robert Kirkpatrick, Direc-
                                                                                                                     exandre Barbosa, Head of       tor of Global Pulse – which
                                                                                                                     CETIC.br; Roberto Rigobon,     is a United Nations initia-
                                                                                                                     Society of Sloan Fellows       tive – and by Emmanuel
                                                                                                                     Professor of Management        Letouzé, Director of Data-
                                                                                                                     and Professor of Applied       Pop Alliance (a coalition
                                                                                                                     Economics at MIT Sloan         formed by the Harvard
                                                                                                                     School of Management;          Humanitarian Initiative, MIT
                                                                                                                     and Mario Cimoli, Director     Media Lab, Overseas De-
                                                                                                                     of ECLAC’s Division of Pro-    velopment Institute and
                                                                                                                     duction, Productivity and      Flowminder Foundation),
                                                                                                                     Management.                    offered an overview of big
                                                                                                                     Keynote speeches were          data use in the world, its
                                                                                                                     given by Robert Kirkpatrick,   potential benefits and risks,
                                                                                                                     Director of UN Global Pulse,   as well as opportunities for
                                                                                                                     and Emmanuel Letouzé,          collaboration.
                                                                                                                     Director of Data-Pop Alli-     Robert Kirkpatrick pointed
                                                                                                                     ance. Other speakers in-       to several existing chal-
                                                                                                                     cluded Chilean Economy         lenges regarding big data
                                                                                                                     Minister Luis Felipe Cés-      analytics, warning of the
                                                                                                                     pedes and Marcelo Jen-         ethical responsibility that
                                                                                                                     kins, Costa Rica’s Minister    its use requires and of data
                                                                                                                     of Science, Technology         access problems. q
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