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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 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.

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.

Development pathways for Latin American and the Caribbean countries have been the subject of debates, analyses and controversies. For several decades, countries in this region have struggled with structural barriers to development associated with social inequalities, political turmoil, colonialism, corruption and a dependence on exploiting natural resources, among others. Recently, the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened some of those obstacles, which when added to the global climate crisis and its environmental impact, leaves the region in a highly stressed situation, with many of its countries on the edge of a deep economic depression. This chapter discusses some of the socioeconomic challenges that Latin America and the Caribbean currently face; the roles of COVID-19 and climate crises on these challenges and some opportunities for recovery.

In this chapter, the authors analyze the academic field of comparative education in Spanish speaking Latin America as a contested construction both in epistemological and political dimensions. First, the authors provide a brief historical account of the origin and development of comparative education in the region since the nineteenth century. Next, they focus on the current state of the field by addressing three aspects: (1) the institutional basis, specially the development of comparative education societies; (2) an account of the contributions of international organizations, both in terms of studies that have been recently conducted and of the development of data bases; and (3) an analysis of prevailing topics as well as theoretical and methodological approaches in a sample of articles published during the 2010-2017 period. The authors conclude by summarizing the main aspects of the current situation, and pointing to future epistemological and political challenges for the field in the region.

During the 1920s, military interests in Latin America and international and diplomatic relations gave the impetus to the creation national airlines. In countries like Colombia and Brazil, the technological and commercial approaches of Germany and other Europeans nations influenced the forms airlines took. In the following decade the United States began to exert its influence which was consolidated after the Second World War. The pattern continued until the 1980s and involved strong international regulation, the predominance of publicly owned national airlines, and American technological leadership. Market liberalization then brought about a new scenario involving privatizations of national airlines across the region, intensified competition, and mergers and acquisitions that led to the formation of large carriers. Today, passenger traffic in the region is dominated by two carriers: LATAM and Avianca. Other local airlines remain, often linked to a global alliance member. Air traffic has been grown, with the prospect of further growth after economic recovery flowing the COVID-19 pandemic. Historically, commercial air traffic has adapted to the needs of its vast territory but where institutional changes have played a very important and often decisive role.

During the period 1962-2001 (9/11), the author identified 25 terrorist acts in the English-speaking Caribbean. Apart from US action in Grenada in 1983, the extra-regional response to these acts was minimal. However, in the aftermath of 9/11, the US has introduced a number of counter-terrorist measures into the region from Washington through such agencies as Southcom, the FBI, the DEA, and the Department of Homeland Security, now including the Coast Guard, to forestall future acts of terrorism. Also the UN, the OAS, and the CARICOM, at the instigation of the US, have encouraged Caribbean nations to adopt resolutions and pass anti-terrorist legislation at the local level in the fight against terrorism. US policy toward the region is based on its own self-interest since it considers the Caribbean its “Third Border,” one that is difficult to close to security threats. In all of this, the Caribbean nations welcome the security, more so because of the incidental protection it offers to their fragile tourist-dependent economies that are sensitive to political and other threats. This coincidence of interest has seen the US merge drug-trafficking and terrorism into one consolidated threat. Traditionally, the Caribbean region has not allocated a large part of its budget to security concerns, but with external assistance, particularly from the US, the region's police and military forces have been called upon to adapt to the global threats of the post-9/11 era by strengthening operational capacity, mission readiness, and intensify regional cooperation. This new thrust also includes making border tightening security measures more comprehensive and robust as well as the sharing of information, including intelligence. As long as the US perceives the terrorist threat a priority, Caribbean security policy will continue apace.

This chapter provides an introduction to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), a project under Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) regional approach. As a region, the countries of LAC correspond to the second-highest representation in GEM after Europe. The chapter describes the GEM project, summarizes some key longitudinal indicators for the region, and analyzes the contributions and importance of GEM project for the systematic study of entrepreneurship.