Building Resilience in Latin America and the Caribbean

To complement the Regional Human Development Report 2025 “Under Pressure: Recalibrating the Future of Human Development in LAC”, we have developed and compiled a series of analytical and practical tools that help land the main finding to national and local contexts. Following the narrative of Chapter 6 in the report, these are organized around the three mechanisms for building resilient human development: instruments to navigate uncertainty; instruments that embrace complexity; and infrastructure that unleashes the power of local communities. 

Instruments: 

Multidimensional Poverty Microsimulation: A tool that uses MPI data to provide cost effective policy recommendations on how to reduce poverty across various dimensions.

Mapping Assets and Poverty (MAP) Tool: A tool that allows for the identification of key household assets that underpin resilience. The assessment helps map levels of risk and guide targeted, context-specific interventions that strengthen households’ ability to withstand shocks.

Digital Multidimensional Inclusion Index (Digital MPI): incorporates internet access, digital device ownership, and digital skills as essential components of inclusive human development. Recognizing that digital poverty can affect both poor and non-poor households, the index provides an evidence based and actionable picture of who is being left behind in the digital transition.

Atlas for Artificial Intelligence in LAC: knowledge platform that positions LAC at the center of the global conversation on AI and development.

Institutions:

Adaptive Social Protection Tool (developed by Inclusive Growth Team): a policy and implementation framework that integrates social protection with disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation to enhance resilience in LAC. It serves as a practical guide for policymakers, offering principles, instruments, and operational pathways to design systems that are flexible, inclusive, and sustainable to recurrent crisis and evolving risks.

Fundamentals of AI Training: Launching in the second half of 2025, this training equips parliamentarians with the skills to debate, legislate, and oversee artificial-intelligence policy through a human-development lens. Co-designed by the Universidad de los Andes (UNIANDES) and Parlamericas.

SALTO: A Risk Simulation Tool (developed in collaboration with the Strategic Innovation Unit): A simulation tool that allows teams to rehearse complex decisions under pressure and uncertainty, enhancing preparedness and adaptive thinking.

Infrastructure that strengthens resilience: 

Digital Public Infrastructure in Practice: This intermediate, face-to-face course equips government officials, policy makers and digital leaders with the knowledge and hands-on skills needed to design and deploy Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) that advances inclusive human development.

State Density Index (developed by the Peru CO): To capture the presence of institutions across the territory, identifying gaps in service provision and institutional capacity. 

Overarching tools: 

LAC Facility for Financing Resilient Human Development (developed by the partnership and Panama hub team): Launched during the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development in Seville, this Facility fosters South-South cooperation, supports access to development finance, and unlocks stalled investments through technical assistance and strategic coordination.