CAF promotes research into development issues

The Andean Development Corporation (CAF) announced today the opening of the Project to Support Research into Development Issues for researchers from the Latin American region, with a view to advancing in the design of a development agenda for the region.

Fidel Jaramillo, CAF vice president of development strategies, explained that the project consists of two programs: one to bring guest researchers to Caracas to continue their work, and another to organize a competition to select and sponsor research work on issues of regional interest.

Guest researchers program The aim of the guest program is to invite a group of researchers – mainly graduate students – to the CAF headquarters in Caracas. The selected researchers will be working on issues related to the CAF priority agenda which covers: labor reform; international financial markets; education and equity; biotrade and biotechnology; pension funds and local capital markets; education and information technology.

The selection process will give priority to researchers who are developing any of these topics in relation to Latin America in general and the Andean Community in particular. The selected students will receive a scholarship of $2,500 a month, along with travel and living expenses for a three-month stay in Caracas, the period set for their research work in the CAF headquarters.

The program is open to graduate students from the CAF shareholder countries who are working on their doctoral thesis, and to young researchers from the region who are associated with universities and/or research institutes, as well as assistant teachers, researchers and graduate students in universities in the United States and Europe.

Research work competition The second program in the project is the CAF research competition, which is intended to strengthen the Corporation’s priority agenda with the Latin American region.

Jaramillo says the CAF will select and sponsor the proposed topics. The resulting research work will be presented at a seminar to be held in Caracas and published throughout the region. The candidates must be researchers associated with universities, research institutes and other public or private organizations in Latin America or university teachers, researchers or graduate students from the CAF shareholder countries who are working in the United States or Europe on issues related to the region.

Jaramillo said the areas defined by the CAF for the competition are: impact of the HIPC initiative; agricultural trade and integration processes; effects of the FTAA on the Andean Community; mechanisms and priorities for generation of social capital; assessment of environmental services and strategic ecosystems; treatment of problem banks in normal times and in systemic crises; biodiversity and intellectual property rights.

The authors of the selected proposals will receive recognition of $6,000 in cash. In addition, the CAF will cover travel and living expenses for the seminar at which the final works are presented, and will publish the final works.

The deadline for sending the entries for the guest researcher program and the research work competition is January 10, 2002 and the completed work must be submitted by July 31 that year.

A jury chosen by the CAF will select entries for both programs on the basis of the quality of content and relevance for the region. The seminar for presentation of the final works will be held in September 2002. More details can be found on the CAF website: www.caf.com.