Who would have said that in the hands of creatives, designers, artists and entrepreneurs would be part of the response to the development challenges of Latin America and the Caribbean? This report is part of the Inter-American Development Bank's (IDB) Demand Solutions: Ideas for Improving Lives, which aims to give visibility to the region's creatives and to position creativity as an integral element of economic and social development. In 2015 the cultural and creative industries (CCI), which are part of what the IDB calls the Orange Economy, generated 1.9 million jobs in Latin America and the Caribbean, and revenues of $124 billion. It is estimated that by 2020 creativity will be the third most demanded skill by companies when selecting their employees. It should be noted that most startups in the region, although little known, have a high social and economic impact in traditional sectors such as health, education and transportation. This report discusses how creativity continues to be the main protagonist to face challenges upon the changes in the way of working and producing goods and services, as well as the indispensable convergence between the analogue and digital. This report highlights 50 of the 300 innovative projects with the greatest social impact in the region, grouped according to 8 sectors of the CCI’s: Architecture, Handcrafts, Design, Media, Fashion, Music, Creative Services and Software / Digital Platforms, in 12 Countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Jamaica, Mexico, Peru and the Dominican Republic. At the same time it also describes the most important trends in these 8 sectors. See more...