UNITED NATIONS, CMC – United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, has appointed Argentine economist Mario Cimoli, the Deputy Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), to serve as the institution’s acting executive secretary.

According to ECLAC, Cimoli replaces Mexican diplomat, Alicia Bárcena, who concluded her mandate on Thursday after nearly 14 years at the helm of the UN regional commission.

Cimoli – who earned his PhD degree from the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom and is a Full Professor of Political Economy at the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice in Italy – has more than 20 years of work experience in the United Nations and ECLAC, the Commission said.

Within the regional Commission, he has served as economic affairs officer of the Division of Production, Productivity and Management (1999-2009); head of that same division’s Innovation and Information Communications Technology (ICT) Unit (2009-2010); director of the Division of Production, Productivity and Management (2010-2018); and officer-in-charge of the Division of International Trade and Integration (2015-2020).

ECLAC said Cimoli has “a long trajectory” as visiting professor and researcher at various institutions, such as the University of Udine, the Metropolitan Autonomous University of Mexico, the University of Pisa, the University of Pavía and the National University of General Sarmiento.

“His extensive publication record reflects a substantial contribution to the fields of micro- and macroeconomic policies, with a focus on development paths, economic growth and the interconnections between industrial policy, technological development and innovation,” ECLAC said.

It said Cimoli’s most recent publications include: Industrial Policies, Patterns of Learning and Development: An Evolutionary Perspective (2020); Choosing sides in the trilemma: international financial cycles and structural change in developing economies (2020); and A technology gap interpretation of growth paths in Asia and Latin America (2019).

He was also co-director of the Industrial Policy Task Force of Intellectual Property Rights Regimes for Development Task Force, along with Giovanni Dosi and Joseph E Stiglitz, of Columbia University (2004-present).

ECLAC said Bárcena’s nearly 14 years of stewardship was characterised by “the hallmark of equality and its key impact on countries’ development processes and human progress.”

“Today, I conclude this fruitful cycle as the highest authority of ECLAC,” said Bárcena during a ceremony held in her honour, which took place as a hybrid event from the regional commission’s central headquarters in Santiago, Chile. “This has been the brightest phase of my professional career.

“For nearly 14 years, I have contributed to giving weight, influence and opportunity to the body of transformative, progressive and egalitarian convictions that distinguish ECLAC’s present thinking,” she added.

Bárcena was appointed ECLAC chief on July 1, 2008 by the United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, becoming the first woman to hold the post.

“She led the work of the commission as a centre of excellence and research applied to public policies on sustainable development, a forum for regional intergovernmental and multi-stakeholder dialogue on sustainable development, and a provider of technical cooperation to countries,” ECLAC said.

During her administration, Bárcena “guided a prolific period in which ECLAC’s way of thinking was consolidated, with a set of progressive ideas for the region that seeks to overcome the structural obstacles that have hindered deep democratic advances and the material and cultural progress of Latin America and the Caribbean.”

Guterres said Bárcena “led a progressive and visionary administration,” stating that “she was one of the first at the UN to position equality in its multiple manifestations, including gender equality, as the cornerstone of sustainable development and to highlight the specific challenges of middle-income countries.”

Among the many initiatives that make up Bárcena’s legacy, ECLAC said five in particular stand out.

They are: the Comprehensive Development Plan for El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and south-southeast Mexico, “as a bid to address the structural causes of migration”; the Plan for Self-Sufficiency in Health Matters in Latin America and the Caribbean, “which seeks to strengthen the capacities for research, development, production and access to vaccines and medicines throughout the region, with emphasis on actions to promote regional integration”; and the Caribbean First initiative, “a strategy that aims to reappraise and strengthen the Caribbean’s place as a fundamental part of our region and to expand opportunities for integration and cooperation.”