Valparaíso Launches New Regional Development Strategy Focused on Social Justice Despite Republican Party Abstention

Original article: Valparaíso: En marcha Estrategia de Desarrollo Regional “con justicia social” pese a abstención del Partido Republicano

The Valparaíso Regional Government officially introduced its new Regional Development Strategy (RDS) for the 2025-2035 period, a legally mandated planning tool aimed at guiding public policies and investment initiatives.

“It was an extensive and intensive process. It took us four years to develop this Regional Development Strategy. When we took office in 2021, the previous strategy was from 2012, so we had the mandate to create a new one,” explained Governor Rodrigo Mundaca.

“The RDS serves as a roadmap that will enable us to collectively address disparities and deepen the decentralization process,” Mundaca added.

Notably, the design process involved participation from residents across all territories—urban, rural, and insular—alongside regional, provincial, and communal authorities, universities, social organizations, the private sector, and technical actors from the Regional Government, led by the Planning and Development Division (DIPLAD).

According to regional councilor for Valparaíso, Paula Rosso, this collaborative effort resulted in a strategy that is “focused on regional development but with social justice,” highlighting the involvement of over 1,600 individuals throughout the process.

“I think it’s fantastic that, collaboratively, different divisions of the regional government along with the development committee and the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) have engaged participatively with 8 provinces, conducting 20 workshops and interviews with various social actors from the region, while also incorporating data from the latest census,” said the Valparaíso CORE.

“Thus, despite the abstention of councilors from the Republican Party and some members of Chile Vamos, we succeeded in adopting this Regional Development Strategy, which serves as a tremendous guide for the region’s work over the next decade,” Rosso added.

Seven Development Pillars

The Regional Development Strategy for the Valparaíso Region 2025-2035 is structured around seven development pillars: social justice and human development; ecosystems and natural common goods; regional economy and sustainable local development; cultural diversity and heritage; livability and sustainable mobility; planned regional territory; and decentralized regional governance.

Moreover, the RDS includes 15 strategic objectives and 62 priority action lines that address issues such as social justice, human development, climate resilience, infrastructure investment, economic recovery, sustainable mobility, safety, heritage, and decentralized governance.

It is important to note that, at the request of the Valparaíso Regional Government, the UNDP provided comprehensive technical support from October 2022 to March 2024 “to ensure a broad participatory process, aligned with international standards and integrating sustainable development, gender, inclusion, risk governance, and public-private partnerships,” as stated by the international entity.

Specifically, the UNDP’s contributions to the process included participatory territorial diagnosis; identification of attributes and critical development bottlenecks; proposal for a governance model; strategic action plan; design and execution of a citizen-valued participatory process; and territorial participation.

Review and/or download the complete strategy here (PDF)

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