Risk analysis is a great tool for helping decision-makers in making decisions about risks. This tool can be extremely helpful in developing countries, which simultaneously face new risks from the developing process, while still are subjected to more traditional risks. In this symposium we look at this issue from a Latin American perspective. While sharing many characteristics, Latin American countries are at different stages of development, and public decision-making processes. A common characteristic though is that input from academia into the regulatory process is relatively more important than in developed countries, due mainly to the lack of institutions and prepared human capital in the public sector.
We present examples from Argentina, Brazil and Chile that illustrate this situation. A discussion will follow the presentations.