Young Global Leaders

Young Global Leaders build emergency houses for the poorest in Chile

A group of Young Global Leaders of the World Economic Forum together with members of the Schwab Foundation’s Social Entrepreneurs worked alongside the beneficiaries and volunteers of Un Techo para Chile (A roof for Chile) in the construction of two households in one of Santiago’s poorest areas were families live between cardboard boxes and piles of trash. This group of leaders not only learned of their efforts to improve their lives but also transfered knowledge with others on site.

Young Global Leaders built up two emergency houses in Nueva Andrés Bello settlement, with the help of “Un Techo Para Chie”, an NGO now present in nine countries that seeks to eradicate poverty across the continent. In this settlement 120 families live and dedicate their lives to recycling papers and cardboards. The group of leaders incentived community’s development plan, talked about promoting the active participation of populators and increasing the work of social leaders of the communities, through the execution of different initiatives, focusing their own interests and needs in order to make them improve their working opportunities.

Lorenzo Mendoza, Chief Executive Officer of Venezuela’s Polar enterprise and Young Global Leader, said that the project had been a great success for all concerned. “Being here in Santiago and seeing the reality of the situation makes you forget about everything else and start to build during all the free time you have,” he said. “You have to walk a lot, and as a company executive you have to go to the places where there are people in need. You can’t avoid reality”.

“Un Techo Para Chile” is an institution leaded by youngsters who through volunteer working, are working since 1997 together with the marginal settlements populators, to improve their quality of life; making, as a first step, the construction of emergency households y developing afterwards social habilitation plans by giving microcredits and enabling in basic occupations. A study on the Chilean housing shortage estimates that Chile still lacks more than 700,000 houses.

24 April (19.30 – 11.00)

Young Global Leaders and the The Young Leaders Network of Chile met to develop an understanding of regional challenges

A group of Young Global Leaders and the Red de Líderes de Chile (The Young Leaders Network of Chile) exchanged experiences and motivations, and explored interactive ways to find solutions to regional constraints during a dinner hosted by El Mercurio and Universidad Adolfo Ibañez. The Red de Líderes de Chile talked about local constrainst in the area of crime and corruption, politics in Latin America, the media, human rights and social development, and Young Global Leaders extrapolated the same issues into a more global level. Young Leaders Network of Chile is a group of Chilean nationals, under 35 years old, selected for their outstanding achievements and their mobilizing capacity to make a qualitative change in leadership behaviour while making a difference in improving the country’s social needs.

25 April (9.00 – 10.30)

Looking to 2030: The Most Competitive Economies of the Future in Latin America

In the framework of the World Economic Forum on Latin America, 16 of Young Global Leders from Latin America met to discussed the drivers of growth, success factors, bottlenecks and the challenges ahead for the region. In the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report 2006-2007, presented by Irene Mia, Chile is the top-ranking country from Latin America and the Caribbean, coming in at 27th out of the 125 nations in the ranking.

After the presentation on the performance of Latin America in the competitiveness study, the Young Global Leaders in the session discussed the results. These were the key conclusions:

· Public awareness of the importance of competitiveness is not high. “The public is not aware that to compete globally is one of the important things you have to do,” said Moderator Felipe Larraín Bascuñán, Professor of Economics, Catholic University of Chile. Noted Alec Oxenford, Founder, OLX.com, Argentina: “The topic of competitiveness is not in the public agenda. It’s not in the media so there is no coordinated action towards more competitiveness. This is a regional problem.”

· Vested interests prevent competitiveness from being placed on the public agenda. In many countries, these forces include labour unions, the bureaucracy and the state. The unions in particular can be powerful, with strong influence over health, education and labour policy. “To change is challenging,” said Lorenzo Mendoza, Chief Executive Officer, Empresas Polar, Venezuela, reporting on his table’s discussions. “It requires political will but also has a cost. It is hard to do it in democracies.”

· To promote competitiveness and innovation requires not just legislation but incentives. “In many closed economies in the region, the unions, the politicians, the businesspeople, the intellectuals do not have the incentive to push an agenda of competitiveness because there are no incentives,” said Alfredo Romero Mendoza, Partner, Gimon Troconis Romero Abogados, Venezuela, in his summary of the conversation at his table. Concluded Larraín: “You can’t talk people into innovating.” Incentives such as tax credits for R&D are necessary.

· Companies are becoming increasingly aware of their social responsibilities. Romero Mendoza called on the private sector to intervene more to improve social welfare, while the state should be less interventionist. He said that in Venezuela the state’s populist policies are bad for the economy and for the image of Latin America in the world. There should be a balance between the state’s role and that of the private sector. Warned Larraín: “There are differences in democracies. The real division is not between the left and right but between the responsible and the populist. Populism is a very dangerous thing. Many examples in the region have miserably failed.”

· To spur innovation will require investment in education and greater tolerance for failure. There should be no social stigma attached to a legitimate business failure, participants agreed.

· The region’s labour markets should be more flexible. And efforts should be made to bring workers in the informal labour market into the formal labour force.

25 April (11.00 – 12.30)

Innovative Solutions to Tackle Challenges in Latin America

Young Global Leaders and Social Entrepreneurs of the World Economic Forum discussed durign a joint private event on 25 April four key challenges facing Latin America: how to improve competitiveness and the investment climate, the informal economy, the emergence of a new digital ecosystem, and the fight against crime and corruption. Participants aimed to come up with innovative solutions that promote growth with equity. These are some of the conclusions that emerged:

Competitiveness and the investment climate: The discussion of competitiveness focused on social responsibility. The private sector has to step up, a number of participants said. Social entrepreneurs in particular can make a difference in tackling persistent problems such as malnutrition, the lack of clean drinking water and weak education systems. Politicians are unlikely to be effective or motivated because of prevalent corruption. Economic development alone does not solve poverty; it must be accompanied by strong social policies. But social policies in Latin America tend to foster a

political dependency that generates corruption and weakens representative democracy and democratic institutions. There must be a regional approach to addressing social issues. Environmental concerns must be stressed. Education should instil appropriate values and respect for the environment.

The informal economy: Over half of some economies are in the informal sector. The key to tackling this problem is to find ways to push people up from misery to poverty to prosperity. “The idea is to bring people from the informal to the formal economy,” said Lorenzo Mendoza, Chief Executive Officer, Empresas Polar, Venezuela. “It is a long road, a chain. People are looking for dignity in the formal economy. We have to

understand that this is a long road and that it will take a lot of effort.” What is needed is information, education and communication so people understand the laws and are given the training and capacity to function in the formal economy.

Digital ecosystem: Steps must be taken to bridge the digital divide. “Clearly there’s a ‘digital apartheid’ if only 7% or 8% of your population has access to connectivity,” said Rodrigo Baggio, Executive Director, Committee for Democracy in Information Technology (CDI), Brazil. “This has direct negative repercussions to society.” Unequal access to technology can widen income gaps. Another issue is content: there is not much Latin American content on the Internet.

Crime and corruption: Crime is on the rise in the region and getting very organized. To combat crime will require education, the promotion of family values, and action by NGOs to address socio-economic problems that lead to the breakdown of families and the emergence of gangs. There is no silver bullet. Crime must be dealt with in a determined, systematic way, using information in a more sophisticated way. “We are in the age of information,” said Alberto Vollmer, Chief Executive Officer, Ron Santa Teresa, Venezuela. “But the tools we use to fight crime are still from the 19th Century.”

Young Global Leaders who participated in the World Economic Forum on Latin America:

· Renato Amorim, Director, Foreign Affairs Department, Companhia Vale do Rio Doce, Brazil
· Rodrigo Baggio, Executive Director, Committee for Democracy in Information Technology (CDI), Brazil
· Ricardo Bisordi de Oliveira Lima, Chief Financial Officer, Camargo Corrêa Group, Brazil
· Eugenio Burzaco, Founder, Fundación Fundar Justicia y Seguridad, Argentina
· Idalia Cruz, Director, Marketing, TV Azteca, Mexico
· Juan Carlos Eichholz, Founder and Director, Centre for Strategic Leadership, University Adolfo Ibañez, Chile
· Alejandro Ferreiro, Minister of the Economy of Chile
· Joaquín Leguía, Executive Director, ANIA (Association for Children and Their Environment), Peru
· Fernando Madeira, Chief Executive Officer, Terra Latin America, Brazil
· Lorenzo Mendoza, Chief Executive Officer, Empresas Polar, Venezuela
· Alec Oxenford, Founder, DeRemate.com, Argentina
· Sebastián Palla, Executive Director, Union of Pension Funds, Argentina
· Enrique Peña Nieto, Governor of the State of Mexico, Mexico
· Alfredo Romero-Mendoza, Partner, GTR Abogados, Venezuela
· Luis M. Saguier, Chief Executive Officer, La Nación, Argentina
· Alberto Vollmer, Executive President, Ron Santa Teresa, Venezuela

Thanks to all participants!!!