World Economic Forum on Latin America 2017

1. Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award Ceremony for Latin America:

Hilde Schwab awarded Carlos Pereira, Chief Executive Officer, Livox, Brazil,  and Yves Moury, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Fundación Capital-FundaK, Colombia, the Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2017.

In Brazil, 15 million people struggle to communicate despite disability or illness ranging from stroke to cerebral palsy. Livox created an app that uses algorithms to interpret a user’s finger movements, thus making it possible for disabled people to communicate and study. Carlos’s daughter has cerebral palsy, providing the impetus for his work.

More than 2 billion of the poorest people in the world have little or no access to a bank account. Fundación Capital facilitates partnerships between governments and financial institutions to provide inclusive financial services and social programmes to over 5 million people in 2016.

2. World Economic Forum on Latin America 2018:

Marcos Pereira, Minister of Industry, Foreign Trade and Services of Brazil, Geraldo Alckmin, Governor of São Paulo, and Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum announced that the next World Economic Forum on Latin America will be held in São Paulo, during the week of 20 March 2018.

3. Gender Parity:

The Government of Argentina, represented by Marcos Peña, Chief of the Cabinet of Ministers, and Carolina Stanley, Minister of Social Development, together with the World Economic Forum, the Inter-American Development Bank and private-sector leaders announced a plan to set up a Gender Parity Task Force in Argentina. 

The task force will use a model of public-private collaboration developed by the Forum to achieve workplace gender parity, aiming to increase the number of women entering and progressing in the labour market and helping to change gender stereotypes.

4. Travel and Tourism:

Launch of the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report 2017. Spain ranks first in the index of 136 countries, ahead of France and Germany. Mexico, the highest-ranked Latin American country, ranked 23rd and Brazil 27th globally, similar to the previous report. Argentina rose six places to 50th place globally and 6th in Latin America. Peru is ranked 51st, moving up seven places and Colombia rose six places to 62nd globally. 

5. Digital Quotient:

Children in Argentina will be able to measure their ability and command of digital media – helping to combat their exposure to dangers such as radicalization, fake news, online grooming and cyber-bullying – with a new online platform launched at the World Economic Forum on Latin America by Esteban Bullrich, Minister of Education of Argentina. The online platform is part of #DQEveryChild™, a new global alliance that aims to increase young people’s digital intelligence quotient (DQ).

6. Internet for All (IFA):

The Argentina project was launched by the World Economic Forum together with the Government of Argentina, the Inter-American Development Bank and the Global Connect Initiative. The two-year project commits to supporting Argentina to advance to the OECD average for internet penetration, which will mean adding 8 million new internet users by 2019. 

7. Circular Economy:

The World Economic Forum, in collaboration with the Inter-American Development Bank’s Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) launched a multistakeholder platform to accelerate the circular economy transition in Latin America and the Caribbean. The platform will broker partnerships and leverage the Fund to invest in regional circular economy innovators, unlocking an estimated $4.5 trillion of GDP growth by 2030.

8. The Future of Economic Growth and Social Inclusion:

A Competitiveness Workshop held in collaboration with Argentina’s Ministry of Production brought together more than 50 government officials to introduce World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report data into public policies and launch actionable agendas for competitiveness and inclusion.
Additionally, the Competitiveness Lab session at the Latin America meeting stirred the interest of Brazilian private-sector participants to support the Government of Brazilian and develop a Competitiveness Lab initiative for Brazil together with the Forum.

9. Inclusive Growth and Development Platform:

The World Economic Forum and The World Bank announced the launch in September 2017 of a platform developed in collaboration with the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) to share leading solutions from the Latin American region and beyond to help further progress and collaborative efforts to foster inclusive growth worldwide, leveraging the private sector.

10. Innovative Financial Instruments to Accelerate Investment in Latin America:

The Inter-American Investment Corporation (IIC) in collaboration with Blue Orange Capital launched an innovative Latin America fund that invests in equity around the areas impacted by projects financed by the Inter-American Development Bank. 

11. Safer Latin America:

Patricia Bullrich, Minister of Security of Argentina, Federico Gutiérrez, Mayor of Medellin, and Ilona Szabo de Carvalho, Executive Director, Igarape Institute of Brazil, launched a new campaign to reduce homicides by 50% in the next 10 years in Latin America. The campaign, known as Instinct for Life (Instinto de Vida), is led by the Igarapé Institute and includes the OAS, IADB, CAF and more than 30 non-governmental organizations from the region. 

12. CEO Climate Leaders:

Over 20 chief executive officers and regional heads of major companies in Latin America met to discuss the critical role business in delivering the Paris Agreement. Co-Chair of the World Economic Forum on Latin America Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, announced in her closing statement that 140 countries have now ratified the Paris Agreement and businesses are helping to lead unstoppable momentum for delivering climate action on the ground.

13. New Vision for Agriculture:

Six South American ministers of agriculture recognized the strategic value of the World Economic Forum New Vision for Agriculture (NVA) initiative as a way of achieving food security and sustainable agricultural development. The ministers joined private-sector leaders, regional organizations, leaders of civil society and farmers associations committed to accelerating sustainable agricultural production in Latin America through NVA initiatives currently underway in Mexico, Colombia and Nicaragua.