P166 short courses on key international economic and development issues for Geneva-based delegates

Productive capacities and the productive capacities index: Reformulating the paths of structural transformation and sustainable development.

Productive capacities are productive resources, entrepreneurial capabilities and production linkages that together determine the ability of a country to produce goods and services that help growth and development. Economywide, domestic productive capacities are necessary in order to advance structural transformation and economic diversification, and to enable more effective engagement by countries in the global economy through international trade, investment and production value chains. Productive capacities aim to place developing economies in the driving seat of their national development. The innovative productive capacities index of UN Trade and Development measures the level of productive capacities in 194 economies and facilitates the identification of gaps in the policy and institutional architecture under the eight components of the index, namely, natural capital, human capital, transport, energy, ICT, the private sector, institutions and structural change. The fragmented models of development and international support have produced limited results to date and a new approach is required, one that is holistic, comprehensive, multisectoral, gender-balanced, climate-resilient and long term. Fostering productive capacities is at the core of this new approach, which emphasizes the importance of reformulating structural transformation and sustainable development trajectories. Sectoral underdevelopment under certain index components and overall weak productive capacities inhibit the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. Therefore, urgent actions need to be implemented to build domestic productive capacities in developing countries, particularly landlocked developing countries, the least developed countries and small island developing States.

The course will enable participants to acquire knowledge of productive capacities and the productive capacities index, including UN Trade and Development work in this area, as well as of inclusive and comprehensive policy formulation, to advance structural transformation and economic diversification through the building of productive capacities.