CLACDS celebrates 25 years of promoting sustainable development in Latin America
- The Latin American Center for Competitiveness and Sustainable Development (CLACDS) celebrated its 25th anniversary with the presentation of a commemorative e-book and a webinar where the trajectory and future of this INCAE Business School think tank were discussed.
Alajuela, Costa Rica, October 13, 2021.- 25 years ago an idea of great relevance arose that led to the founding of the Latin American Center for Competitiveness and Sustainable Development (CLACDS) as part of INCAE Business School: the idea of promoting the development of Latin America through competitiveness and sustainability.
The CLACDS webinar: 12 years of promoting sustainable development in the region took place on the morning of October 25 to talk about its trajectory and the future plans of the center, in which two of its founders participated: Brizio Biondi -Morra, today President emeritus of the Board of Directors of INCAE, and Roberto Artavia, former Rector of INCAE and today President of the Board of Directors of the institution. They recalled another of the founding pillars of CLACDS: the Swiss businessman and industrialist Stephan Schmidheiny, who supported financially –together with CABEI and the AVINA Foundation– the creation of the INCAE think tank.
Brizio Biondi-Morra said: “In the first discussions we had in the early XNUMXs to create CLACDS, it was clearly stated that competitiveness and sustainability were not contradictory or in conflict, as many people believed at the time. We established that the two concepts are synergistic and that sustainability is not a luxury ”.
For his part, Roberto Artavia shared that “the global competitiveness index, as we know it today, had the Central American nations among its first emerging international members. And this was thanks to a request made by INCAE before the World Economic Forum. This is how we inserted ourselves into the global agenda ”.
In keeping with its mission to promote sustainable development in the region through research, capacity building and dialogue, CLACDS has earned its role as the center of thought and applied research of INCAE, the leading business school in America. Latina according to the prestigious Financial Times ranking.
The center uses a methodology of four work axes that unite competitiveness, social progress, environmental performance and governance and has worked closely with different international organizations, such as the World Bank, the IDB, GIZ, the Embassy of United States and other partners in research and training programs for public and private sector leaders.
In the webinar on October 12, an unforgettable day in the history of the center, the former Rector of INCAE Arturo Condo also spoke, who narrated how “the transition to a new century meant for CLACDS a time of much evolution. We have become a benchmark in national competitiveness programs, social responsibility agendas and on the subject of clusters. We were part of the political discussions, without getting into it. It was a time of consolidation, of transformation with an innovative vision ”.
Then the current Rector of INCAE, Enrique Bolaños, intervened. After mentioning some important initiatives in which CLACDS is involved today (the Social Progress Index, the digital transformation of the region, climate change, projects for women and, recently, actions to help the countries of the region to face the COVID-19 pandemic), assured that “INCAE's mission is much more than educating. It is to help the integral development of the countries we serve. We are not here to improve the lives of those who study here, but to prepare them to change the lives of others ”.
Octavio Martínez, CLACDS Director, closed the event | INCAE, with some forceful words: “Today, more than ever, we remain highly committed to this vision of promoting sustainable development in our region through applied research, capacity building, facilitation of dialogue and participatory design of strategies. for the transformation of our region ”, and also assured that“ in CLACDS we are eager to continue with this line of work trying to contribute as agents of change and contribute to the preparation of the countries to face the new challenges ”.
During the event, an emotional video was broadcast that included the recorded congratulations of important personalities close to INCAE, such as businessmen Ricardo and Alejandro Poma, Camilo Atala and Francisco RR de Sola, among other Directors and members of the Board of Directors of INCAE, such as Ma. Eugenia Brizuela, Danilo Siekavizza, Xavier Argüello and Brizio Biondi-Morra himself, as well as Stanley Motta, Co-Chair of the INCAE Advisory Council.
The e-book 25 years of being the ideas laboratory of a region in transformation was also presented, which narrates the main milestones of CLACDS and can be downloaded digitally here
About INCAE Business School
# 1 Executive MBA in Latin America, Financial Times, 2020
# 1 Female Participants in Executive Education, Financial Times, 2020
# 1 Business School in Latin America, The European, 2019
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