In this vein, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), through the Digital Transformation Laboratory, organized a dialogue space with Caribbean countries, together with its strategic partners GIZ and CTU, to reflect on how governments can effectively foster collaboration, experimentation, and learning within their own institutions, paying special attention to the role of regulatory sandboxes as tools for innovative governance.

The meeting featured the participation of experts, including Armando Guio, an ECLAC consultant, who was in charge of presenting how regulatory sandboxes work in practice within the framework of the RESMA methodology, aimed at supporting countries in reducing gaps and advancing their regulatory experimentation agendas. Guio explained that since 2022, together with German cooperation (GIZ), the growing interest in these instruments has been analyzed. While their implementation has primarily focused on high-income countries, there is a growing interest from low- and middle-income countries in understanding their operation and their potential impact on public policy design.

What makes regulatory sandboxes effective?

During his speech, Guio highlighted that the success of regulatory sandboxes depends on factors such as the participation of relevant stakeholders, the ability to test regulatory inputs, the generation of evidence for decision-making, and their effective impact on policy formulation. He also emphasized the importance of having public policy frameworks that support these environments, clearly defining the regulatory problems to be addressed, and evaluating the institutional capacity and available resources for their implementation.

“The Caribbean can position itself not only as a center for experimentation but also as a global benchmark for regulatory learning on AI,” Guio concluded.

The meeting also addressed lessons for the Caribbean, particularly in the field of artificial intelligence, where regulatory sandboxes can become an initial pathway for developing evidence-based and learning-based governance agendas. In this regard, the relevance of international cooperation and information exchange among authorities to strengthen regulatory learning in the region was highlighted.

Additional documents that can be referenced:

Regulatory sandboxes in developing economies