Public Policy

Marisol Alarcón (MPA-DP ’13) received the annual “Social Entrepreneur of the Year” award granted by Sábado magazine and the NGO Sistema B.

During a two-day gathering in New York, more than a hundred students, scholars, and researchers met to address the most pressing topics currently at the top of Chile’s public policy agenda. This annual event, in its fourth version, was hosted by Columbia and New York University (NYU) and sponsored by the Santiago Center.

Every year, millions of individuals suffer from acute stroke, the second leading cause of death globally, as well as other neurological emergencies. Stroke, severe traumatic brain injury, subarachnoid hemorrhage, and spinal cord injury all cause significant morbidity and mortality. Often in resource-limited settings, delays in diagnosis and appropriate management lead to poor outcomes such as death or permanent and significant neurological deficits.
 

Maggie Hopkins, Program Coordinator at the Columbia’s Business School’s Entrepreneurship and Competitiveness in Latin America program (ECLA) traveled to Chile in mid-August to meet with local entrepreneurs and start-ups interested in applying to the program.

Esteban Calvo, member of the Columbia Aging Center (CAC) faculty, adjunct assistant professor of epidemiology at Columbia University, and professor of public policy at Universidad Diego Portales in Chile, was part of a three-member group that was awarded funds by the CAC to develop aging science. Their project, titled “Aging well with alcohol?

On November 19, Chile will hold Presidential and Congressional elections. In early July, two of the three main political coalitions, the center-right alliance Chile Vamos and the leftist partnershipFrente Amplio, held primaries to select their presidential candidates, a process in which former President Sebastián Piñera and journalist Beatriz Sánchez were elected, respectively. 

The Santiago Center, in association with Chile’s Center for Sustainable Urban Development (CEDEUS), organized a seminar in late June entitled “Promoting Equality through Sustainable Public Transportation."

During the last few years, Chile has been hit by record-high temperatures and an ongoing drought. This combination, which has had a strong impact in the agriculture sector, was a key determinant behind the wave of wild fires that struck the Central-South of the country last January.

Recent scandals involving corporate misconduct both globally and in Chile have increased mistrust in business among investors, consumers and the community in general. In mid-May, the Santiago Center organized a conference entitled “Corporate Governance and Corruption: Global Trends and Local Challenges”. 

Chile is the largest copper exporter and holds the world’s greatest proven reserves. However, the industry is facing several challenges: Production fell 3.9% in 2016 because of weak international commodity prices, lower productivity rates, technical challenges, higher labor costs, and increasing conflicts between companies and the communities in which they operate.

Thomas Di Prete, Giddins Professor of Sociology, and Co-Director of the Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy at Columbia University, visited Santiago and spoke on Gender Inequality in STEM Education in an event organized by the Santiago Center, Comunidad Mujer, COES, and the School of Economy and Business of the University of Chile.

Strengthening the participation of women in the clean energy revolution that Chile is experiencing, as well as promoting their inclusion in leadership positions within the sector’s companies, universities, government, and non-profit institutions, was the main objective of an extremely successful workshop organized by the Santiago Center in conjunction with the Chilean Renewable Energy Association (ACERA).

The cost of the Trump administration’s abrupt changes in immigration policy, to individuals and families, to companies and communities, and to our nation’s standing as a place of tolerance and opportunity, are enormous. Far more sinister than travel bans and policy changes is the undeclared, and now seemingly common, practice of profiling on the basis of religion and origin.