Local development in Cuba from a higher education perspective

The place of local development issues in the country’s economic and social development model has changed drastically, especially in the last three years. Documents such as the Constitution of the Republic and the National Plan for Economic and Social Development 2030, together with the discourse, a set of approved policies and numerous actions by the government, clearly indicate that local development is no longer considered a relatively peripheral issue, of limited importance and only partially understood. To the contrary, it is now seen as a key element of the socio-economic transformations under way. In many municipalities the government–higher education–local development links are being consolidated. The Articulated Platform for the Integral Development of the Territories is an important tool: a flexible, integrative, inter-territorial, multi-level and multi-actor platform that operates throughout the country. The article reviews some of the obstacles that hinder the advancement of local development. Displacing the traditional centralist and top-down model is a difficult task.