Institute and Development Bank of Latin America join efforts to distinguish Portuguese talents
Raul Fretes, from ISCTE-IUL, was the winner of the Portuguese phase of the University Essay Competition #IdeasParaElFuturo, with a study on the implementation of Information Technologies in rural development in the fight against climate change. The Special Mention was awarded to André Francisco Soares Correia, from the University of Minho, with an analysis of investment attraction policies for Latin America and the Caribbean.
As winners of the competition, the two young people received recognition from José Antonio García Belaunde, CAF representative for Europe, and Paulo Neves, president of IPDAL. Then, the winner of the Portuguese stage will compete for the prizes of the Ibero-American stage, which, in this edition, include: the Guillermo Perry prize for the winner, worth 3,000 dollars, a second prize of 2,000 dollars and a third prize of 1,000 dollars. The awards will be awarded during the CAF Conference in Mexico City, in November 2020.
Paulo Neves highlighted that States should not give up on their environmental and sustainability commitments in the name of the economic urgency caused by the pandemic and that, in this sense, young people are experiencing a moment of opportunity to present innovative solutions that allow them to maintain wealth creation, preserving the environment environment. For his part, José Antonio García Belaunde highlighted the importance of competitions like this one to incorporate the voices of young people in the search for innovative solutions to the region’s challenges: “the Covid-19 crisis has made society suddenly face its own weaknesses and inconsistencies. The resilience of our social model and the functioning of the economy are being tested and, in a special way, the responsiveness, decision-making and wisdom of our governments and public institutions are also being tested”.
In this edition of the award #IdeasParaElFuturo, 528 essays were received, 8 of which were Portuguese. There were a total of 3,444 young people registering for university students in the competition.
#IdeasParaElFuturo is a CAF initiative that promotes the exchange and discussion of ideas that contribute to sustainable development and regional integration through the promotion of the best university talents.