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This chapter offers a brief comparative and socio-educative overview of Latin America and the Caribbean, elaborated with the purpose of guiding reflection on the diversity of contexts that constitute the region. This overview highlights economic, social, political and cultural aspects that characterize the region and that, consequently, indicate points of departure and arrival for the design and implementation of educational policies aimed at satisfying the socio-historical needs of each of the Latin American countries.

This abbreviated study includes a systematic review and contrast of basic aspects of regional education systems, focused on achieving the formation of an integral citizen, capable of applying the acquired competencies in the resolution of problems that will prepare them for insertion in the labor market once their schooling is completed. In this sense, the countries and dependencies that integrate the Latin American and Caribbean region still face complex challenges closely related to the quality that educational services have achieved, in addition to the conditions of equality and equity so necessary to integrate the broad sectors of the population located on the thresholds of poverty and marginalization, of the secular horizon that has characterized the Latin American socioeconomic reality.

The objective of this chapter is to identify the key characteristics of Global Services businesses that will thrive and achieve success in the future. These factors are integrated into three main pillars, which we refer to as the Triple-Win. The first and most obvious pillar is technology as a tool. The second pillar is the design and sustainability of the business model, without which the previous factor would be merely a cost and not an investment. And last but not the least, there is the purpose which gives meaning to the proposal, focusing on the human being and their environment. The DIDPAGA business model sits at the intersection of these three elements.

Against a broader global and regional shift toward “quality education for all,” the chapter explores education policy developments and trends related to teacher education and professional development in Latin America and the Caribbean. We examine how multilateral education policy circulation and regional horizontal cooperation has guided these education policy developments. The chapter is organized into three parts. It first provides a discussion of educational multilateralism and new forms of horizontal cooperation, as it relates to educational development efforts. We argue that these new forms of multilateralism and horizontal cooperation guide the development of policies that seek to enhance both educational equity and quality education, particularly through advancing teacher education and professional development. The second section explores several recent education policy trends that relate to teacher education and professional development in Latin America and the Caribbean, and the challenges that Ministries of Education face when designing and implementing programs of teacher education and professional development. Lastly, the chapter examines the role of regional organizations in promoting new forms of regional horizontal cooperation specific to teacher education and professional development, focusing on the example of Organization of American States’ (OAS) Inter-American Teacher Education Network (ITEN).

The aim of this paper is to analyze the number of schools and programs of library science that have existed in Latin America and the Caribbean from 1985 to date. It was written in order to understand the nature of library science teaching, and to provide a numerical analysis of the schools and programs identified.

The study is based on previous works that collected information on programs and institutions devoted to library science teaching. The main sources are the works of Fang (1985), Fang et al. (1995) and Maris and Giunti (1999). Differences between the Hispanic‐Portuguese and Anglo‐Saxon educational systems are described, as well as what they mean to library science teaching. With the purpose of standardizing the Anglo‐Saxon and Hispanic‐Portuguese systems, the various study programs were divided according to the classification used by Fang and Nauta.

It is evident that the number of schools and programs has been increasing and decreasing, and although the causes of this trend are not known, the data show that Latin American library science studies are continuously in motion. Regarding the creation of schools and programs, the data that have been gathered suggest an influence from European and American schools first and UNESCO programs later. Numerical data are provided per country on the number of schools and programs for training, technical studies, tertiary‐undergraduate studies, tertiary‐graduate studies and tertiary‐postgraduate studies.

Because this study is based on previous works that collected information on programs and institutions, one has to admit that they do not provide information on all the schools that have existed in Latin America and the Caribbean and, thus, data are not fully accurate; however, there is enough information to provide a clear overview of the situation and the trends of library science in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The paper contributes to the knowledge of library education in Latin America and the Caribbean. It points out the formation of human resources in reference to education levels and affirms the diversity of library education in those regions.

Jorge Sàbato, the Latin American scientist, predicted that ‘either Latin America dominates technology or through other countries technology will dominate Latin America’ (Sagasti 1984). This prediction might serve to point toward one of the objectives to challenge our countries of the Caribbean and Latin America in the coming century. To understand how hard we will have to work to achieve that goal we might look at the barriers to information technology in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Accounting for over 90% of goods traded globally, Maritime Transport is undeniably the main mode of international transport for goods throughout the world. Despite the global financial crisis in 2008, growth in international seaborne trade continued, albeit at a slower rate of 3.6% in 2008 as compared with 4.5% in 2007. The volume of global sea‐borne trade for 2008 totaled 8.17 billion tons as estimated by UNCTAD (2009). Maritime transport is more critical to the development of the small Caribbean states than for most other regions because they exist as islands in the Caribbean Sea, and consequently are heavily reliant on foreign trade. However, despite the advancement in the area of maritime transport globally, Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) continue to be plagued with high transport costs, inadequate port and transport infrastructure and a lack of coordinated maritime transport policies among others. It can, therefore, be widely appreciated that in order for LAC to achieve sustained economic development there is need for improved maritime transport cooperation in the region. This paper seeks to use the examples of Trinidad and Tobago from the Caribbean and Venezuela from Latin America to examine the ways in which Maritime Transport Cooperation can be enhanced in order to encourage development and growth in the Greater Caribbean region

The purpose of this chapter is to critically evaluate the development of technological infrastructure and the propensity of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) destinations to adopt digitalisation in their hotel sectors. This paper focuses on technological readiness, the types of digitalisation and its influence on the hotel sector in a post-pandemic environment.

The chapter is a critical and conceptual overview of digitalisation in the Latin America and the Caribbean hotel sectors, the contribution of the hotel sector to tourism economies, and digitalisation in LAC post COVID-19. A comprehensive examination of the academic literature is combined with the Network Readiness Index (NRI) and Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI) on several LAC countries focusing on different scopes including ICT readiness, ICT environment and business usage from 2010 to 2020. The paper uses empirical data collected from NRI and TTCI on several LAC countries examining changes in development of information and communications technology (ICT) by conducting a longitudinal analysis over a ten-year period.

The chapter argues that digitalisation in the hotel sector has been given a lot of attention regarding the adoption of digitalisation during the pandemic by a continuation of activities involving check-in and check-out, providing safety for guests and staff and the recovery of the hotel sector by both hoteliers and academics. Yet, LAC have been slow when it comes to the development of ICT. This is shown on the NRI and the TTCI by their position on ICT infrastructure, ICT environment and business usage. Nevertheless, while their positions on the indexes are less than favourable, their scores are improving, but at a very slow rate.

Limited academic literature is available on digitalisation in LAC countries. There is no consistent data on the NRI and TTCI year to year for some of the countries examined in this study.

This study provides a comprehensive review of technological infrastructure development of countries of Latin America and Caribbean countries with an emphasis on digitalisation in a hospitality context. The chapter is a critical examination of digitalisation in the hotel sector in a post-pandemic environment.

The purpose of this paper is to summarize the main methods and themes used on organizational learning (OL) and learning organization (LO) research in Latin American and the Caribbean.

A literature review was conducted by means of a broad and systematic strategy to locating, selecting and analyzing papers on OL/LO, written in different languages (English, Portuguese and Spanish). Systematic searches were carried out at the two databases (Web of Science’s Social Sciences Citation Index and Scopus), and 15 specific Latin American and Caribbean journals were identified as data sources for the review. A thematic analysis was carried out using NVivo and cluster analysis.

In all 79 papers published between 2000 and 2017 were included in the synthesis and results: 18 are theoretical papers and literature reviews and 61 are empirical papers (30 qualitative, 24 quantitative and 7 multiple methods). These empirical papers revealed the study of the OL/LO concepts in organizations located mainly in Brazil, Venezuela, Chile, Colombia, El Salvador, Mexico and Costa Rica. Five topics represent the main themes addressed on OL/LO studies in Latin America and the Caribbean and are avenues for future research in the field: (i) knowledge and KM (i.e. knowledge management), (ii) culture and leadership, (iii) innovation and improvement, (iv) learning (for example, learning process, learning styles), and (v) entrepreneurship and sustainability.

This paper provides a summary of the research methods and themes used in the OL/LO field in Latin America and the Caribbean, suggesting insights for future research.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the performance and the relationship between competitiveness, real gross domestic product (GDP) growth and human development in 20 countries of the Latin America and Caribbean region during the 2006-2015 period. The main argument to uphold here is that – from the perspective of virtuous circle – countries with better conditions of competitiveness are those with better economic performance and with better conditions for human development.

Time series data were organized at three levels: individual countries, groups of nations and Latin America and Caribbean as a whole. Indicators used were: index of competitiveness, rates of change in real GDP and Human Development Index. Cluster analysis tests were performed: data ranges were determined and quintiles were established. Countries were ranked in five categories and comparative position matrices were determined for each variable. Linear correlations between indexes were calculated. Linear correlation coefficients were determined in terms of groups of countries and considering Latin America and Caribbean as a whole.

Findings revealed that decreasing conditions in competitiveness and economic growth indicators are the representative situation since 2009. The most competitive country in the region is Chile, and the weakest is Venezuela. Nevertheless, all Latin American and Caribbean countries analyzed seem to have made progress in terms of human, economic and social development. Regarding correlations, Dominican Republic showed an inverse relationship between competitiveness and economic growth, while Jamaica and Venezuela showed inverse relationships between competitiveness and human development. At the individual country level, no statistically significant relationship between economic growth and human development was detected.

Findings highlight the necessity of future research that result in a deeper understanding of the transmission mechanisms between economic and social performance in Latin American and Caribbean countries. Particular reasons at the micro level that explain improvements or deteriorations in competitiveness and human development must also be analyzed. Based on the degrees of freedom, time series could have included more years, but a lack of information was found for some countries. It would also be necessary to observe each particular case considering the type of economy, production characteristics and export/import composition.

Results complement the existing literature by exploring competitiveness and its relationship with economic and social variables in developing countries. The authors also believe that this paper is relevant for macroeconomic and social policy debates involving competitiveness and human well-being in this region of the world.

This paper supports an important argument: human well-being and national development must be the ultimate goal of competitiveness. Traditional literature focuses on levels and determinants of competitiveness in developed countries, but it usually does not take into account social and human aspects of the process in developing countries. Little attention has been paid to analyze the relationship between competitiveness and socioeconomic variables in developing countries. Methods and findings of this paper complement the existing literature by studying the relationships among competitiveness, real GDP growth and human development in Latin American and Caribbean countries, using correlation analysis.

Latin American countries must prioritize energy efficiency and renewable energies in their energy policies. This has been debated for the past few decades. However, it is impossible to deny that energy efficiency and renewable energies have significant potential to mitigate the adverse effects of ever-increasing energy consumption induced by economic growth and the transformation of societies toward more energy-intensive models. This chapter identifies how sustainable energy policies could be considered successful in various Latin American economies through an active review and comparison of traditional energy models and their transition and respective consequences. The chapter concludes that there are national energy plans in countries in the region with a sustainable approach, and that clean energy and renewable sources have great potential. But it is also concluded that there is still a long way to go concerning legislation and legal frameworks.