SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia (CMC) — More than 500 representatives from Latin American and Caribbean Civil Societies organisations are meeting in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, with senior Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) officials to discuss ways to put innovation at the service of sustainable development.

On Thursday, the IDB said the 17th Annual Meeting is a two-day annual event that includes workshops, discussion panels and direct exchanges with Civil Society groups.

This year’s meeting focuses on the relevance of innovation for sustainable growth from a variety of perspectives, such as the jobs of the future, the use of data to transform cities, the changes brought about by the digital economy, the exponential growth of technology and social innovation, the IDB said.

“In this constantly changing world, the civil society in Latin America and the Caribbean has a unique chance to profit from disruptive innovation to contribute to improve the living standards of all its citizens,” said the IDB’s Vice President for Countries Alexandre Meira da Rosa.

“We must all work together to strengthen our region’s innovation potential and make sure that it plays a pivotal role in the fourth digital revolution,” da Rosa added.

Both from its headquarters in Washington and its 26 country offices throughout the region, the IDB said it works alongside the Civil Society on five strategic engagement lines – information, dialogues, public consultations, collaboration, and partnerships – “in order to promote inclusion and diversity to combat inequality and poverty, boost productivity and innovation, and foster economic integration among Latin American and Caribbean countries.

“This engagement with civil society seeks to promote shared sustainable growth of the three main actors of development: governments, private sector and civil society,” the IDB said.

Within this framework, and following deep changes in the region over the past few decades such as consolidation of its democratic systems, decentralization, middle class expansion, and the technological and social networks revolution, the IDB said it continues to move forward to multiply the opportunities for sustainable growth.

Among other things, during its annual meeting, the IDB said it conducted public consultations under the Ideatonmethodology that produced “valuable input from representatives of the 26 nations’ civil societies.

“Together with the results of other consultations previously conducted with governments, the private sector and other civil society organizations, this input will help create the strategy for the next IDB Group-Civil Society Engagement towards 2030, which will be presented in 2018,” the IDB said.

It said it has launched WiConnet3, a georeferenced digital platform that helps governments, the private sector, the civil society, and other development agencies and donors “to know who does what, how and where in the different sectors and regions of Latin America and the Caribbean”.

“Their aim is to move forward together to promote the region’s sustainable development and help civil society organizations turn into true social innovation labs,” the IDB said.