Event Summary · 2015-2016 President Néstor Kirchner Fellows offer Public Lecture at The New School

November 11^th, 2015 | The New School, New York

On November 11th, 2015 Analía Calero from Argentina and María Magdalena Bas Vilizzio from Uruguay presented their research at the public lecture titled “Dilemmas in Public Policy in Latin America”, which was held at the traditional Orozco Room at The New School. The two fall PNK fellows were accompanied and introduced by The New School president David Van Zandt, Permanent Representative of Argentina to the United Nations María Cristina Perceval, Minister Counselor of Uruguay to the United Nations, Jorge Dotta, and Margarita Gutman, Director of PNK Fellowship from OLA. The lecture was welcomed by David Van Zandt, President of The New School who recognized the importance of the PNK Fellowship as a continuous link between The New School and Latin America, throughout the five years since its creation. He also pointed that he wanted to take the opportunity to mention the late Julien Studley, celebrating his immense contribution to both the PNK Fellowship and the OLA. Margarita Gutman highlighted how this year the PNK had a new scope, reaching for the first time countries in Central America and the Caribbean. This effort was reflected in the increased number of applications, a total of 129 from the whole region, including countries like Mexico, Honduras, and Cuba.

Argentinian Ambassador to the UN Maria Cristina Perceval continued by thanking the OLA and The New School for their continuous effort and the valuable job done through the Fellowship and the great level of diffusion and impact it creates. She highlighted the relevance of the PNK Fellowship in terms of the number of universities, countries and people it brings together in order to give such an opportunity to young people. She also pointed out how important Analía Calero’s work was to Argentina by showing with concrete data, the challenges faced by Argentinean youth and the need for timely implementation of appropriate policies focusing on this population.

Analía Calero, PNK Fellow from Argentina proceeded to present her research titled “Youth and Multidimensional Inequality: The case of Argentina 2004-2014 in the Latin American context”. Analía introduced her research by pointing out the main social and economic inequalities faced by the young population in Argentina and how these have been targeted through different programs implemented over the last decade. She illustrated how the most relevant programs have focused on improving overall welfare by creating employment opportunities, enforcing education enrollment, and providing social services for people between 18 and 24 years old. Then she introduced the core of her research: a multidimensional approach to inequality in Argentinian youth between 2004 and 2014. She pointed how this multidimensional approach was based on four attributes related to labor market conditions, education, health, and the use of time among people between 16 and 24 years old. Analía highlighted that thanks to the different surveys available in Argentina, she was able to construct this analysis, which allowed her to determine the socio economic characteristics of this population and the factors that explain the main challenges young people face. She presented inequality within this segment of the population as compared to other segments. Analía concluded by pointing out that youth is a population group that represents challenges and opportunities for public policies aimed at improving the intergenerational welfare. She then completed her lecture by analyzing her findings in the light of the recent policies implemented by the government, and proposing further evaluation of the impact of such policies.

Minister Counselor of Uruguay to the United Nations, Jorge Dotta congratulated the two fellows on their achievement and thanked the PNK organizers for giving this opportunity to different scholars in the region. He proceeded to recognize the important analysis done by Maria Magdalena Bass Vilizzio, the Uruguayan fellow, through her work on the relevance of sovereignty in dispute settlements, an issue that is relevant for all countries in the region in the light of ongoing bilateral trade agreements and increasing number of disputes.

Maria Magdalena Bas Vilizzio, proceeded to present her research titled “South America Facing Bilateral Investment Treaties: Towards a return of the State in dispute settlement?”. Maria Magdalena introduced her lecture by explaining the implications for sovereign nations of allowing international arbitration to be the main mechanism for dispute settlements derived from Bilateral Investment Treaties (BIT). Her research focuses on the effects of BITs on national sovereignty (as defined by most of Latin American constitutions), and specifically how the individual approaches coming from different countries affect the possibilities for the region as a whole to have better outcomes out of disputes. Maria Magdalena´s research highlights three different positions taken countries in the region, according to the international legal system on investor-State dispute settlement, based on how each country protects its sovereign rights. After describing the cases of Brazil, Ecuador, and Argentina, Magdalena concluded that by having different approaches, the countries in the region were loosing negotiation power in terms of international disputes. Her research ultimately claims for building a regional approach based on a development model that benefits the region as a whole.

The Public Lecture ended with a lively discussion on both presentations and multiple questions from the public. Representative María Cristina Perceval concluded the discussion by thanking everyone for the excellent discussion and congratulated Analía and Magdalena on their work pointing out that both had an important contribution to the regional agenda. Minister Councelor Dotta agreed with Ambassador Perceval and further stated how these discussions are timely, especially with the upcoming global discussions on climate change, inequality and sovereignty.

+ Find out more on Analía Calero’s PNK fellow experience in New York

+ Find out more on Magdalena Bas Vilizzio’s PNK fellow experience in New York

+ Watch the Public Lecture video

 

 

 

 

Tags: Economy, Fellows, Fellowship, Human Rights, Inequity, Public Lecture, Public Policy, Research