WASHINGTON - Housing shortages and urban development challenges remain among the most pressing issues in Latin America and the Caribbean. Addressing these challenges starts with something essential: reliable, comparable, and up-to-date data.

To meet this need, the Inter-American Development Bank Group and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), with the support of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), have launched Housing and Urban Intelligence, the region's first integrated data hub of its kind. This new platform brings together more than 3,000 indicators, 18 country profiles, and content from over 500 official sources, providing indispensable information to understand and manage housing and urban development issues.

The platform enables governments, financiers, builders, researchers, and specialists to identify gaps, track progress, and design evidence-based policies quickly and without the need to consult multiple scattered sources.

"For a year and a half, ECLAC and the IDB, with the support of the OECD, have curated information from CEPALSTAT and other relevant sources to facilitate decision-making by key actors in the housing and urban development sector in the region," said Diego Aulestia, Head of the Human Settlements Unit at ECLAC.

"With this tool, which will continue to expand its content over time, we are responding to an urgent need in the region: a single information center that consolidates all the data necessary to understand and manage housing and urban development in Latin America and the Caribbean," said IDB Housing Specialist Paloma Silva, who thanked the OECD for its support.

The official launch of this new information management tool took place during the XXXIV General Assembly of the Forum of Ministers and High-Level Authorities of Housing and Urban Development of Latin America and the Caribbean Ministers and Highest Authorities of Housing and Urbanism of Latin America and the Caribbean (MINURVI), held in Bridgetown, Barbados.