Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe

What Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe does

Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL/ECLAC) is one of five regional commissions of the United Nations, established in 1948 by the UN Economic and Social Council to contribute to the economic and social development of Latin America and the Caribbean. It serves 33 sovereign member states and 13 associate members from a headquarters in Santiago, Chile, with subregional offices in Mexico City and Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. The organization's core analytical and dissemination platform is the Digital Repository (repositorio.cepal.org), originally launched in 2014 and relaunched in BETA form in 2023, which today hosts over 46,000 digital assets spanning publications, datasets, and policy documents accumulated over more than 75 years.

ECLAC's product surface also includes CEPALSTAT, a regional statistical portal aggregating national accounts, social indicators, and economic series; CEPALGEO, a geospatial data platform; and recurring publications such as Revista CEPAL, Notas de Población, and flagship analytical reports on the regional economic outlook, productive development, and structural change. The technology stack is centered on open-access web publishing and structured data delivery, with no disclosed AI or machine learning components. The institution also performs a technical secretariat function for regional agreements, most notably the Escazú Agreement on environmental rights adopted in 2018.

ECLAC operates as an intergovernmental organization with no commercial revenue model. Its activities are funded through the UN regular budget — financed by assessed contributions from the full UN membership — supplemented by voluntary extra-budgetary contributions from member states and partners including the Republic of Korea, France, and the Ford Foundation. Leadership transitioned in 2022 from Executive Secretary Alicia Bárcena (2008–2022) to José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs. The organization maintains a lean operational footprint of approximately 52 staff distributed across its three offices and pursues its development mandate through research, technical cooperation, intergovernmental policy dialogue, and capacity-building with national statistical offices and line ministries.

Name

Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe

Legal name

Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe

Website

https://repositorio.cepal.org

Company type

Public

Founded year

1948

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (ECLAC) is a United Nations regional commission serving 33 member states in Latin America and the Caribbean, producing economic analysis, statistical data (CEPALSTAT), and policy research from its Santiago headquarters.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Santiago de Chile

HQ country

Chile

HQ region

Latin America

Offices3 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Others

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

CEPAL/ECLAC generates and disseminates economic, social, and environmental research, policy analysis, and flagship publications for the Latin American and Caribbean region. Its primary deliverable is the open-access Digital Repository (repositorio.cepal.org) providing single-point access to more than 46,000 digital assets spanning 1948 to present, complemented by the CEPALSTAT statistical portal and CEPALGEO geospatial platform.

Product overview

ECLAC operates primarily as a research and policy analysis organization rather than a technology product company. Its core digital offering is the Digital Repository (Repositorio Digital), an open-access platform that serves as a single point of access to over 46,000 digital assets including publications, documents, multimedia resources, authors, and key materials on economic, social, and environmental development in Latin America and the Caribbean from 1948 to present. The repository houses several flagship publication series including the CEPAL Review (Revista CEPAL), Notas de Población, and session documents. Supporting statistical and geospatial platforms (CEPALSTAT and CEPALGEO) provide complementary data access services. The organization functions as a UN regional commission focused on economic research and development policy.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• CEPALGEO: Geographic information platform for Latin America and the Caribbean
• CEPALSTAT
• Revista CEPAL / CEPAL Review

Products and services

• Repositorio Digital (Digital Repository) Open-access digital repository that captures, stores, indexes, preserves, and redistributes the intellectual output of ECLAC, providing single-point access to more than 46,000 digital assets from 1948 to present, including documents, publications, multimedia resources, and authors on economic, social, and environmental development of Latin America and the Caribbean.
• CEPALSTAT Statistical portal providing access to socioeconomic data and indicators for Latin America and the Caribbean.
• CEPALGEO Geographic information system providing geospatial data and visualization for the Latin America and Caribbean region.
• Revista CEPAL (CEPAL Review) Quarterly academic journal examining socioeconomic development problems of the Latin American and Caribbean region through analytical and policy approaches, with complete editorial independence.
• Flagship Publications Emblematic annual publications covering different aspects of regional reality, prepared by interdivisional technical teams. Currently includes seven annual reports.
• Notas de Población Biannual publication featuring articles and research reports on demographic dynamics in the region, published by CELADE - Population Division.
• Período de Sesiones de la Comisión Documents and publications from the biennial Commission sessions since 1948, the most important meeting for analyzing development issues and examining the organization's activities.
• ILPES Training Programs Capacity building and training programs offered by the Latin American and Caribbean Institute for Economic and Social Planning (ILPES) for public sector officials and planners.

Quantifiable outcome

• Provision of open access to over 46,000 digital publications and documents for governments, researchers, and public

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Partnerships

13 partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• CLAC (Association of Coffee Exporting Countries)minorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2020Cooperation agreement between CLAC and CEPAL for research on coffee market prices and volatility affecting Latin American coffee producers.
• FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerFAO-CEPAL Cooperation Agreement for agricultural and climate change analysis, including impact estimation on major crops in 14 Caribbean countries.
• CIAT (International Center for Tropical Agriculture)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCooperation agreement for agricultural vulnerability analysis to climate change in the Central American Integration System (SICA) region.
• Government of FrancecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCEPAL-France Cooperation Agreement covering biodiversity governance, environmental sustainability, and development research in Latin America and the Caribbean.
• Ministry of Cultures, Arts and Heritage of ChileminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerTechnical cooperation for development of cultural satellite accounts system to measure socioeconomic aspects of culture in Chile.
• Republic of KoreacoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerMultiple cooperation agreements (2016-2020+) between the Republic of Korea and CEPAL covering trade strategies, sustainable development, demographic analysis, and multiscalar planning. Active partnerships on population ageing, SME internationalization, and innovation policy exchange.
• Ford FoundationcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration Agreement 'Transforming regional development models in Latin America and the Caribbean and advancing inequality reduction.' Covers social inequality research, education, and inclusive development.
• UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerMultiple collaboration agreements for strengthening social policy agendas for childhood in Latin America and the Caribbean. Includes non-contributory cash transfers, public investment measurement in children, and childhood development policies.
• WFP (World Food Programme) Haiti Country OfficeminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCooperation agreement for social protection and promotion training materials in Haitian Creole, supporting national social protection policy implementation.
• Fundación Ayuda en AcciónminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration for strengthening public youth policies agenda in Latin America, including school-to-work transition studies.
• Government of Buenos Aires ProvinceminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerTechnical Cooperation Complementary Act No. 2 for productive structure and business dynamics analysis in Buenos Aires province.
• Government of Santa Fe ProvinceminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerComplementary Act No. 8 cooperation on Industry 4.0 opportunities and productive development challenges for Santa Fe province.
• Ministry of Economy, Finance and Planning of Formosa ProvinceminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerComplementary Act No. 2 cooperation for structural development gaps analysis in Formosa province, Argentina.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Others

• CEPALSTAT: ECLAC's own statistical data portal — referenced here as an internal adjacent ecosystem rather than an external peer; included because statistical portals of other UN bodies (UNECE Stats, UNCTADstat) serve as comparable functional assets.

Direct peers

• UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA): Fifth UN regional commission (alongside ECA, ECE, ECLAC and ESCAP), structurally identical in mandate and open-access publishing model, focused on the Arab states region.
• UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP): Fifth UN regional commission, structurally identical to ECLAC, focused on Asia-Pacific economic and social development research with comparable open-access publishing and statistical outputs.
• Inter-American Development Bank (IDB): Leading LAC-focused multilateral development institution publishing economic research, open data and policy reports. Highly comparable in target audience (LAC governments, researchers) and in producing flagship annual regional economic outlooks.
• UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA): Sister UN regional commission covering Africa with a parallel mandate for economic research, policy analysis and an open-access digital repository. Closest structural analogue to ECLAC, operating under identical UN governance but in a different geography.
• World Bank Open Knowledge Repository: World Bank's open-access repository of economic research, country studies and policy reports — direct functional parallel to ECLAC's Digital Repository in scope, metadata standards and open-data API exposure.
• UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD): UN body producing authoritative economic research and policy analysis with a comparable digital publications repository, overlapping with ECLAC on trade, development and macroeconomic themes for developing countries.
• UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE): Fourth UN regional commission with parallel structure to ECLAC — economic research, statistical databases (e.g., UNECE Stats) and open-access publications serving its member region.

Broad incumbents

• OECD iLibrary: OECD's flagship open-access platform for economic research, statistics and country reports. Comparable in open-access publishing model and statistical depth but covers OECD member countries rather than LAC specifically.
• IMF eLibrary: International Monetary Fund's research and data portal offering open-access economic publications, country reports and statistical databases. Overlaps with ECLAC on macroeconomic research and policy analysis for member countries.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/cepal_onu
• YouTubeyoutube.com/user/CEPALONU
• Facebookfacebook.com/cepal.onu
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/comisi%C3%B3n-econ%C3%B3mica-para-am%C3%A9rica-latina-y-el-caribe

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Subsidiaries2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe