Civic Innovator: Drew Chafetz, United States
View a video interview with Drew Chafetz below. By the time he was 12, Drew Chafetz had visited six of the world’s seven continents, thanks to his parents’ determination to expand the family’s horizons. That not only spurred him to a lifelong love of travel, but into a career that involved his other passion: playing … Read more
Arts Innovator: Francisca Valenzuela, Chile
Singer. Fashion designer. Entrepreneur. At 27, Francisca Valenzuela has already reached the kind of success usually associated with a professionally managed career. But instead of a top agent or a big record label, the San Francisco-born Chilean artist owes her achievements to a team that includes her mother, biochemist Bernardita Méndez, her boyfriend and artistic … Read more
Too often, especially in emerging economies, the exorbitant investment necessary to prepare for these events goes to projects with little long-term economic value.
The World Cup, the Olympics and other mega sports events give cities and countries the opportunity to be in the world’s spotlight for several weeks. And the competition among cities to host these events can be as fierce as the competition among the athletes themselves. Bids that had traditionally gone to wealthier countries have recently … Read more
The urgency and scale of hosting can provide a needed boost to public investment and transform a country’s image, infrastructure and business conditions beyond the games.
In the next two years, Brazil will host the three largest mega sports events in the world: the 2014 FIFA World Cup this summer, and then the Summer Olympics and Paralympics in Rio in 2016. Other nations in the Americas and across the globe will be watching to see if Brazil’s hosting duties lead to … Read more
Dispatches: Guatemalan Migrants
Read a sidebar about voluntary return migration. Read a sidebar about the stigma that return migrants face. View a slideshow of return migrants in Guatemala below. Fidelino Gómez remembers fondly the years he spent in Iowa, where his middle child was born. Standing outside his one-room wood home in his native Guatemala, Gómez, 34, thumbs … Read more
Speaking a Common Language with Latin America: Economics
United States-Latin American relations have often suffered from a disconnect. While we stress security issues, the region’s leaders speak of poverty reduction and trade. They resent being seen as afterthoughts to U.S. policies focused elsewhere. As a result, the region is sporadically open to new suitors, such as Spanish investors 15 years ago, or the … Read more
Contested Lands, Contested Laws
Read more about proposals for regulation here. The right to free, prior and informed consent (FPIC), or consulta previa, has expanded throughout South America. Nine states have ratified the International Labour Organization’s Convention 169 (ILO169)—the principal treaty regarding consulta previa.* But regulations created by four of those states—Colombia, Chile, Peru, and Ecuador—contradict the commitments they … Read more
Business Responsibility to Respect Indigenous Rights
While numerous United Nations mechanisms1 have addressed the impact of business activities on Indigenous rights, it was only in 2011—with the UN Human Rights Council’s unanimous endorsement of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights—that the role of businesses in respecting, or abusing, these rights was officially acknowledged. The Guiding Principles’ “do-no-harm” approach … Read more
The Rise of Popular Consultations
On a hot Sunday morning in July 2013, the inhabitants of Piedras, a small municipality in the Colombian Andes, gathered to decide whether large-scale mining activities should be permitted in their territory. Piedras, traditionally a rice farming community, could soon be a neighbor to one of the biggest open-pit mining projects in the world. The … Read more
Two Views of Consulta Previa in Guatemala: A View from Indigenous Peoples
Read a view from the private sector here. Guatemala is a plurinational country that 22 Maya nations, Xinka, Garifuna, and Ladino people jointly call home. The efforts to gain access to natural resources—often without the consent of the communities affected—constitute another stage in the long history of dispossession and repression of Maya peoples since colonization. … Read more
Contradiction in International Law
Indigenous peoples’ control over natural resources continues to be one of the most controversial issues in international law.1 Numerous international human rights treaties recognize Indigenous communities’ right to be consulted over the use of resources on or beneath their communal lands. But international law tends to consider third parties’ exploitation of natural resources on Indigenous … Read more
Reducing the Financial Risk of Social Conflict
Read a sidebar on foiled energy projects. The Peruvian economy has experienced exceptional growth in the past 10 years, with its GDP expanding at an average yearly rate of 6.5 percent. Much of this growth is due to the mining sector, which in 2012 accounted for 9.6 percent of Peru’s GDP, 1.3 percent of its … Read more
NAFTA@20: A Bittersweet Celebration
Read NAFTA @20: Where We Go From Here by Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León here. Read NAFTA @20: The Perils of Partisanship by Thomas F. McLarty III here. Read sidebars on aerospace, medical devices and the automotive sector. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has never occupied a particularly secure place in the public … Read more
NAFTA @20: The Perils of Partisanship
Read NAFTA @20: Where We Go From Here by Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León here. Read NAFTA @20: A Bitterweet Celebration by Carol Wise and Joshua Tuynman here. In his December 8, 1993, remarks at the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), then-U.S. President Bill Clinton observed that the treaty debate had … Read more
NAFTA @20: Where We Go From Here
Read NAFTA @20: The Perils of Partisanship by Thomas F. McLarty III here. Read NAFTA @20: A Bitterweet Celebration by Carol Wise and Joshua Tuynman here. Has the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) fulfilled its promise? I believe it has. NAFTA was conceived first and foremost as an instrument to promote trade and investment … Read more
