Lessons from the three-day event in Rio de Janeiro By Mercedes Menéndez, Carlo Pietrobelli and Jorge Valverde From 20 to 22 July 2023, the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics (SASE) met for a three-day conference in Rio de Janeiro. There, the UNU-MERIT UNESCO Chair on Science, Technology and Innovation for Sustainable Development in Latin America organized a panel focused on the potential effects of the new techno-economic paradigm for Latin-American countries, entitled “The dual tran...

Six questions with UNESCO Chair speaker and Duke University professor Gary Gereffi Few understand global value and supply chains – let alone the differences between them – more deeply than Gary Gereffi, a Duke University professor who has been studying our global production frameworks in all their labyrinthian growth and development for some five decades. In a recent event hosted by UNU-MERIT’s UNESCO Chair, Gereffi shared his timely insights on what recent industrial policy changes ...

UNU-MERIT UNESCO Chair event examines investment strategies for climate and development goals When it comes to limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, who will finance the investments needed to do so, and will the funding sources be domestic or foreign, public or private, or from debts or grants? And, in a macroeconomic context, how can we ensure that such investments will have their desired effects on the green transitions of nations? These are the questions Andrés Velasco, Dean of the ...

In the second webinar of the UNESCO Chair series on ‘Science, Technology and Innovation Policies for Sustainable Development in Latin America’, Dr. Pascual Restrepo (Assistant Professor of Economics at Boston University) gave a presentation on the ‘Origins and implications of the current wave of automation technologies’. Dr. Maria Savona, Professor of Economics of Innovation at SPRU & Professor of Applied Economics at LUISS University, acted as a discussant. The semin...

In October 2022, UNU-MERIT’s UNESCO Chair on Science, Technology and Innovation for Sustainable Development for Latin America and the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) delivered a Training Programme on Productive Development and Competitiveness in Honduras. The training programme was oriented toward Honduras’s senior policymakers at national and sub-national levels, scholars,  union representatives and the private sector, who lead and work on agendas to enhance competitiveness, ...

During the first webinar of the UNESCO Chair series on ”Science, Technology and Innovation Policies for Sustainable Development in Latin America”, Prof. Gabriela Dutrénit  (Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Xochimilco, México) gave a presentation on “STI Policy, development strategy and social inclusion”. Gonzalo Rivas, Chief of the Competitiveness, Technology and Innovation Division of the Interamerican Development Bank (IADB), acted as discussant. The seminar was held ...

As part of UNU-MERIT’s UNESCO Chair on Science, Technology and Innovation Policies for Sustainable Development for Latin America, we proudly announce our series of webinars on Science, Technology and Innovation Policies for Sustainable Development in Latin America. The meetings will be framed around four main challenges for STI policies in the region. These topics crucially depend on the intrinsic characteristics of the region, as well as on global trends in the changing techno-economic pa...

This training program will take place in a hybrid format, including a series of webinars and a face-to-face course in Tegucigalpa between the 24th and 26th of October. The training program is oriented toward Honduras’s high-level decision-makers, including policymakers at the national and sub-national levels, experts, scholars, representatives of unions and the private sector, who are leading and working on agendas to enhance competitiveness, productive development and job creation. The ge...

The 2021 International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists highlights the instrumental role of prosecutorial services, in investigating and prosecuting not only killings but also threats of violence against journalists. This year’s campaign highlights the psychological trauma experienced by journalists, and stresses the need to investigate and prosecute anyone making such threats. To mark this year’s event, which coincided with the Nobel Peace Prize being awarded to two inve...

Three UNU-MERIT researchers contributed to the UNESCO Science Report 2021: Luc Soete and Hugo Hollanders among others co-authored the chapter on the European Union, while Shuan Sadreghazi wrote the chapter on Iran. In a preface to the 750-page document, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said: “The Covid-19 pandemic has underscored three important lessons. The first is that we are all deeply interconnected. No-one will be safe from the virus until everyone is safe. The second lesson is ...