Responding to COVID-19 with Science, Innovation, and Productive Development

The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are shaking global socioeconomic structures. Given this, the scientific world, innovation ecosystems, and the business sector are deploying efforts at blistering speeds. In real time, we are seeing scientists collaborating in a race to develop a vaccine and antiviral medications, the industry modifying its production processes to be able to contribute to the large-scale manufacture of health supplies, and innovators and technology startups organizing to provide solutions to the most urgent problems. For any post-crisis exit and economic recovery plan, science, technology, and innovation will be decisive. The urgent question is how we can facilitate the development of these efforts based on the capacities of the countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. This document shares experiences about the interventions that are being deployed inside and outside of the region. More importantly, it provides a series of reflections and initial public policy guidelines on how science, technology, and innovation can generate conditions for the post-crisis exit and lay the foundation for economic recovery.