Public Sector Innovation in the Dominican Republic

By Guzmán Ariza, Attorneys at Law

The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC/CEPAL) published in April 2026 its Overview of Public Management in Latin America and the Caribbean: State innovation for managing vital transformations. The report is part of ECLAC’s broader analytical work on governance and development planning in the region, particularly in relation to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Rather than focusing on individual countries in isolation, the document presents a regional framework for understanding how public administrations are evolving. Its central argument is that innovation in the public sector is no longer limited to technological modernization or administrative efficiency. Instead, it refers to the strengthening of state capacities to coordinate policies, plan strategically, and respond to complex development challenges in a coherent and sustainable way.

Within this regional analysis, the Dominican Republic is included as one of the more developed institutional examples of how innovation has been incorporated into national planning systems.

Innovation as part of national planning architecture

Unlike some cases in the region where innovation policies are fragmented or project-based, the Dominican Republic is described in the report as having progressively embedded innovation into its formal development strategy.

A key reference point is the 2012 National Development Strategy (Law No. 1-12), which explicitly incorporates innovation as a pillar of long-term national development planning. This early institutional recognition is important in the ECLAC analysis, as it places innovation not as a sectoral policy but as part of the country’s broader development model.

From this foundation, the country has developed governance structures intended to coordinate innovation policy across the state. The report highlights the creation of the Innovation and Digital Development Cabinet, which serves as a coordinating body for science, technology, innovation policy, and digital transformation within the public sector. Its role is not operational in a narrow sense, but rather strategic: aligning multiple institutions and policy areas under a unified direction.

More recently, this institutional framework has been reinforced through updated regulatory and administrative arrangements, including its formal strengthening under Decree No. 338-23. This reflects an ongoing effort to consolidate innovation governance at the highest level of the executive branch.

Digital transformation and public innovation instruments

The ECLAC report also notes that the Dominican Republic has advanced in defining a more structured innovation policy agenda. One of the most relevant instruments mentioned is the National Innovation Policy 2030, which sets ambitious targets such as increasing research, development, and innovation investment to 1% of GDP and expanding collaboration mechanisms between the public sector, private sector, and research institutions.

In parallel, the creation of the Public Innovation Lab within the Presidential Administrative Office is presented as an example of institutional experimentation. Its purpose is to develop and test solutions aimed at improving public services and generating public value, reflecting a broader regional trend toward “innovation labs” as tools for policy experimentation.

These initiatives are complemented by efforts to strengthen digital transformation in public administration. While the report does not present a full assessment of outcomes, it situates these efforts within a broader move toward modernizing state capacity and improving service delivery through digital tools and data systems.

Monitoring, evaluation, and state capacity

A particularly relevant dimension highlighted by ECLAC is the development of monitoring and evaluation systems. The Dominican Republic’s National Monitoring and Evaluation System, integrated into the national planning and public investment framework, is designed to assess the effectiveness, efficiency, and impact of public policies.

This aspect is significant in the report’s analytical framework because ECLAC emphasizes that innovation is not only about introducing new initiatives, but also about ensuring that states can evaluate their performance and adjust policies based on evidence. In this sense, evaluation capacity is treated as a core component of innovation, not an administrative add-on.

Regional interpretation: what the Dominican case represents

In the ECLAC typology, the Dominican Republic is not presented as an outlier or exceptional case, but rather as an example of a broader regional pattern: the gradual institutionalization of innovation within planning systems.

What distinguishes the Dominican case in this framework is the degree to which innovation is embedded in formal governance structures rather than treated as a temporary policy agenda. This includes its integration into national development planning, the creation of coordinating bodies at the executive level, and the articulation of long-term targets for innovation investment.

At the same time, the report remains cautious in its implicit assessment. Like other countries in the region, the Dominican Republic operates within structural constraints common across Latin America and the Caribbean, including institutional fragmentation, uneven implementation capacity, and the ongoing challenge of translating strategic plans into consistent policy outcomes.