November 18, 2002

IDB ORGANIZES INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR ON SOCIAL CAPITAL, ETHICS AND DEVELOPMENT IN LA PAZ, BOLIVIA, NOV. 25-26

Experts and academics of 80 universities of Latin America to debate new ethical challenges under the auspices of the IDB, the Government of Norway, and the CAF

The Inter-American Development Bank is organizing on Nov 25-26 an international seminar on ethics and development at the Bolivian Catholic University in La Paz, to place ethical concerns about development programs at the vanguard of policy debates in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Government and civil society representatives and academics of 80 universities of Bolivia and the region will participate in the international seminar “Social Capital, Ethics and Development: The New Challenges”. The seminar is open to the public to those who register in advance.

The event is under the framework of the Inter-American Initiative on Social Capital, Ethics and Development, created by IDB President Enrique V. Iglesias with support of the Government of Norway. Sponsors include the Corporación Andina de Fomento (CAF), the Universidad Católica Boliviana and the IDB Representation in Bolivia.

The sessions will be opened at 10 a.m. on Monday by Bolivia’s Vice-President Carlos Mesa Gisbert, the IDB representative in Bolivia Carlos Melo, the Dean of the Universidad Católica Boliviana Carlos Gerke, and the CAF director for Governability and Technical Cooperation, Elvira Lupo.

The agenda will be focused in the ethical challenges for the region and ways to improve teaching of ethical issues and the formation of social capital for development in the business and economics faculties and other strategic professional careers of the region.

During the meeting the National Network of Bolivian Universities on Ethics and Development will be launched, as proposed in a meeting on ethics held in Buenos Aires in September with 1700 participants, including academics from 88 universities of the region.

Speakers at the seminar in La Paz will include the president of Bolivia’s Senate, Mirta Quevedo; the minister of Sustainable Development of Bolivia, Guillermo Justiniano; the dean of the Hurtado University in Chile, Fernando Montes; the director of the United Nations Governability Institute, Joan Prats; United States Professors José Itzigshon of Brown University and Marcelo Siles of Michigan University; Michel Azcueta of the government of the city of Lima; and the general coordinator of the Inter-American Initiative of Social Capital, Ethics and Development, Bernardo Kliksberg.

Kliksberg emphasized that more than 500 participants already registered for the seminar in La Paz, and that there is a plan to follow up on the conclusions of the meeting.