CAF and OEI to Promote and Articulate Innovation in Latin America

CAF—development bank of Latin America— and the Organization of Ibero-American States for Education, Science and Culture (OEI) signed a non-reimbursable technical cooperation agreement on Thursday to support the Project for the Promotion and Articulation of Innovation Ecosystems, which aims to design and deliver multi-stakeholder learning experiences for the strategic consolidation of innovation ecosystems in at least six countries in the region.

During the signing event, CAF executive president Luis Carranza Ugarte noted: “Regional integration is one of the pillars of CAF’s mission, and therefore, we are pleased to work hand in hand with the OEI to promote and articulate innovation ecosystems to boost productivity and competitiveness, especially for SMEs in the region.”

Furthermore, OEI Secretary General Mariano Jabonero Blanco noted: “The OEI has a historical concern for the vocational training of young people, and a proof thereof is the creation of the Education and Productivity Institute, which aims to take on one of the greatest challenges in our region: boosting productivity by improving the training of human resources.” Jabonero added that “the agreement with CAF precisely focuses on this issue, as innovation also requires skills, and training in these skills for us means working on education to improve the competitiveness of our economies.”

Online courses will promote training for the main stakeholders in each of the environments of innovation ecosystems; government agencies responsible for Science, Technology and Innovation; companies; professional associations; and entities that create and transfer knowledge to foster innovation (technology centers and universities), with multimedia materials that meet their overlapping skills in these areas. The courses will be offered through CAF’s CANVAS platform. The objectives also include building an inventory of innovation projects associated with SMEs in the region, which will be developed during participation in the training program.