Funglode and GFDD, together with the Center for Development Economics and Policy (CDEP) of Columbia University, will celebrate the VI edition of the Global Forum Latin America and the Caribbean 2024

The forum will take place Thursday, October 3, at the Center for Development Economics and Policy (The Kellogg Center), with the participation of experts from the fields of geopolitics and economics.

NEW YORK. The Global Foundation for Democracy and Development (Funglode) and its sister institution in the United States, the Global Foundation for Democracy and Development (GFDD), in coordination with the Center for Development Economics and Policy (CDEP), will celebrate the VI Global Forum Latin America and the Caribbean 2024 in New York City, on Thursday, October 3, 2024.

This prestigious event will take place at CDEP’s Kellogg Center and is supported by the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the Institute of Latin American Studies at Columbia University (ILAS), and the think-tank Global Americans (GA).

It will be held in a hybrid format, allowing for both in-person and online participation. The main objective of this conference is to create a space for debate and offer a plural platform for the exchange of ideas, focusing on the changing role of Latin America and the Caribbean in the current global scenario. Special attention will be paid to recent and ongoing electoral developments in Latin America, the United States and globally.

About the Forum

The main objective of this initiative is to promote a space for debate and offer a pluralistic platform for the exchange of ideas, discussion and analysis of the current role of Latin America and the Caribbean on the world stage, as well as its implications and challenges at a time of great uncertainty due to the global geopolitical and economic crisis.

Another topic that will be addressed is the accelerated advance of technologies linked to artificial intelligence, which are unquestionably leaving their mark both on the world and in our region, especially in democracies and electoral processes. Its regulation, in a responsible and transparent manner for the economic, political and social well-being of the region will also be analyzed.

Program

The one-day event will consist of four panels, where experts will present their ideas, observations and conclusions on the following topics:

Panel 1: Global and regional economy and politics

Panel 2: Current political and social developments in Latin America

Panel 3: Latin America and the US Elections: the role of the Latino vote, the economic and foreign policy repercussions

Panel 4: The impact of artificial intelligence on democracy, governance and elections

Participants

As has been the case since the first Forum was held in 2018, this initiative will once again bring together representatives from the main think-tanks dedicated to the study of the dynamics of the region, as well as academics and personalities from the political, economic and social spheres of Latin America and the Caribbean.

The Forum will begin at 9:30 a.m. on October 3. The opening keynote remarks on the global political and economic situation will be delivered by internationally renowned economist Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Center for Sustainable Development, Columbia University.

José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CELAC) and José Antonio Ocampo, Co-Director of the Economic and Political Concentration, School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University, will be among the featured speakers. Also, Alicia Bárcenas, Foreign Minister of Mexico and next Secretary of the Environment of Mexico; Daniel Titelman, Director of the Economic Development Division (ECLAC); Eduardo Gamarra, from the Department of Politics and International Relations, Florida International University, and Mark Hugo López, director of research on race and ethnicity, Pew Research Center.

Noah Giansiracusa, Data Coordinator at Bentley University, and Mekela Panditharatne, an attorney at the Brennan Center’s Democracy Program at New York University, will be presenting their views on artificial intelligence and the challenges its use poses.

For more information: www.globalforumlac.org