CAF to Tackle Economic Revival, Health, Climate Change, Digital Transformation, Elections in 24th Conference
The meeting will be streamed live on September 9–11, 2020, and will feature Uruguayan president Luis Lacalle Pou. The Annual CAF Conference—which is organized jointly with Inter-American Dialogue and the Organization of American States—has gathered representatives from across the hemisphere to analyze and debate the major political, economic and social trends in Latin America and the Caribbean since 1997.
The 24th Annual CAF Conference will be streamed live on September 9–11, 2020, and will gather as many as 30 experts from a variety of economic sectors across the Americas, to debate the main challenges posed by the current crisis. The meeting is organized by CAF—development bank of Latin America—, the Inter-American Dialogue, and the Organization of American States (OAS), and will address the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the opportunities to improve the well-being of the population and the competitiveness of the region, among other issues.
During the conference, a series of entrepreneurs, academics and officials from across the region will debate a variety of issues over three days, divided into six sessions.
- Wednesday 9: The post-COVID-19 economic recovery and the future of the social contract in the Americas.
- Thursday 10: “Success and Failure: Our Healthcare Systems Under Pressure,” “A Conversation About Coronavirus, Climate Change and the Environment: Challenges Faced by Latin America and the Caribbean” and “Opportunities and Risks of the Region’s Digital Transformation.”
- Friday 11: “Politics During the Pandemic: Impact on Latin American Democracy and the Rule of Law” and “U.S. Presidential Elections: Implications for Latin America and the Caribbean.”
The 24th Annual CAF Conference will be attended by leaders such as Uruguayan president Luis Lacalle Pou, Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz, Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) director and World Health Organization regional director for the Americas Carissa F. Etienne, World Bank vice president and chief economist Carmen Reinhart, PepsiCo Latin America CEO Paula Santilli, Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean executive secretary Alicia Bárcena, CAF executive president Luis Carranza, Inter-American Dialogue president Michael Shifter and OAS secretary general Luis Almagro.
Among the panelists slated to participate are also Inter-American Dialog co-chair, co-chair of the Inter-American Dialogue and former Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Thomas A. Shannon, Jr., UNDP regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean Luis Felipe López Calva, Ibero-American Secretary General and former Vice President of Costa Rica Rebeca Grynspan, and EAN University chancellor and former Alexander Von Humboldt Institute of Biological Resources director Brigitte Baptiste.