Month: February 2024

We visit women in Technology.

Through a virtual meeting, the Women in Technology  (Mujeres En Tecnología) team welcomed us to share their work. Through a virtual meeting, we were welcomed by Soledad Salas, Founder and Executive Director, and Yanina Dominguez, Director of Finance.

MET is an organization dedicated to promoting inclusion and diversity in the technological ecosystem through its courses, workshops, study groups and research. It also helps more women and gender diversity to connect professionally in the tech ecosystem.

MET has a significant reach, with 8,000 community members, more than 6,500 women and diversities trained, and 41,000 participants in its events.

Learn more about his work by visiting his website.

FLOR Foundation opened its doors to us

In our recent visit to the FLOR Foundation we were able to learn about its work in building a network of leaders committed to the goal of building more sustainable, diverse, inclusive and equitable societies.

We spoke with Giselle Petraglia, Executive Director and Victoria Borelli, Coordinator of Institutional Development and Communication, who told us about their projects, programs and new initiatives that they will carry out this new year.

FLOR Foundation invites us to lay the foundations for a more responsible society, where diversity and solidarity are sources of growth, sustainability, respect and peace. Managing diversity is the foundation’s key to achieving the transformation to a more just and inclusive society.

Furthermore, Fundación Flor recognizes and values ​​the impact of numerous organizations that are already walking this path. For this reason, it annually awards the FLOR Awards for Diversity, an initiative that pays tribute to those who are leading the change towards a more inclusive reality.

We are pleased to work with Fundación Flor and Mujeres en Tecnología. Both organizations are pillars for the active construction of a more equitable and diverse future.

Thank you for having us!

Since 2005, the sole criterion for inclusion of countries on the DAC list of ODA eligible countries is their status as “low- and middle-income” countries in accordance with GNI per capita as defined in the World Bank’s income classification. The threshold for graduation – i.e. exiting the list – is therefore classification by the World Bank (WB) as a high-income country for three consecutive years.

Important: making sure that a country’s graduation from the list is well-prepared and based on the notion of ‘smooth transition strategies’.  Recently, the DAC decided that in the future countries anticipated to transition to the higher income category will be informed by the OECD Secretariat about the ODA criterion and timeframes in the first year they reach the high-income threshold, rather than only a year in advance as previously practiced. Countries will thus be alerted earlier, giving them more time to prepare for ODA resources being phased out as a form of external financing.

The DAC members further confirmed their commitment to contribute to smooth transitions. This message was reaffirmed in the recent Communique from the DAC high level meeting on 14-15 November 2023, which stated: “We will anticipate countries’ transition to other sources of domestic, and where applicable, external finance, and explore options together with partner countries to continue co-operation through other avenues”.

The challenge of preparing countries whose GNI per capita trajectory indicates their upcoming graduation from the ODA list is one that DAC members will need to  address before the next triennial review of this list in 2026. At present, Guyana and Panama are on a trajectory to graduate following this review. Net ODA to these two countries was USD 139 million and USD 91 million in 2021, respectively.

In this context it is clearly a constraint that most donors do not have funding streams beyond ODA. A recent report from a Norwegian expert group has offered some ideas in this direction, suggesting that countries could make available non-ODA funds for this purpose – at the same time stressing that such funding streams should not be at the expense of ODA within the 0.7% target, but additional to it.

Another issue of concern to the DAC has been managing situations where a country graduates from the list, but afterwards falls below the threshold, in some cases due to sudden onset crises (e.g., Covid-19, natural disasters).

That risk prompted the DAC in 2020 to simplify and expedite the process of reinstatement, so that if in July of a given year, WB income data for the previous year reveal that a graduated country has fallen below the high-income threshold, that country can be re-instated immediately, retroactively effective to the first of January of that same calendar year. This happened recently for Palau which graduated in 2021 but was reinstated on the list in 2022.

Read the full report here.

We are pleased to announce that we are now members of Catalyst 2030, a global movement committed to the advancement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. We inaugurated our alliance by participating in a welcoming event that marked the beginning of a collaboration to address global challenges and build a more sustainable future.

Catalyst 2030, launched at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2020, is a rapidly growing global movement led by social entrepreneurs and innovators. It was created in collaboration with organizations such as Ashoka, Echoing Green, the Schwab Foundation of the World Economic Forum, and the Skoll Foundation.

The foundation focuses on supporting cultural changes towards equity, collaborating with concerned parties to balance power in decision-making. What sets Catalyst 2030 apart are its strategic pillars to drive its mission. The foundation is built on a solid network of leaders and movements working for social change, prioritizing both impact and the well-being of its members.

Together with Catalyst 2030, we embark on the mission of implementing sustainable strategies and solutions to boost a positive change.

The year 2023 presented significant challenges in matters of human rights, especially due to repression and atrocities in places with armed conflicts. The selective outrage of governments and transactional diplomacy came at a cost for those not included in
international agreements.

To contemplate the challenges of 2024, it is important to look at the present and recent past, finding clues and trends that can guide us in building a more just, peaceful, and democratic world. In this quest, Human Rights Watch invites us to recognize the challenges and pending debts from the previous year.

Key themes: Loss of rights, armed violence, and the climate crisis. Renewed conflicts between Israel and Hamas, as well as in Sudan, caused much suffering to their populations, along with ongoing conflicts in Ukraine, Myanmar, Ethiopia, and the Sahel.

Governments faced the challenge of the climate crisis, dealing
with the warmest year on record and a series of natural disasters in Bangladesh, Libya, and Canada, with catastrophic consequences.

Economic inequality increased globally, generating outrage over political decisions that left many people struggling to survive. In this context, the rights of women, girls, and LGBT individuals faced harsh reprisals in various parts of the world. A notable example was the disproportionate gender-based violence driven by the Taliban in Afghanistan. Faced with these challenges, the landscape offers the opportunity to explore alternative paths and work towards a fairer future.

Consequences of transactional diplomacy The causes of these human rights crises and their consequences often transcend borders and cannot be resolved by governments acting alone.

There is an interconnection between these crises that goes beyond borders and requires a response based on the universal principles of human rights and the rule of law.

Some governments choose to ignore the principles that underpin universal agreements on the respect for human rights, undermining trust in institutions responsible for enforcing and protecting these rights. In this context, transactional diplomacy has played a crucial role in rights violations, as governments of the most influential countries have sacrificed principles for short-term benefits in trade or security.

Read the full report here.

We launched our Yearbook 2023, a compilation of the projects, activities, and achievements that marked our commitment to Civil Society. Throughout the year, we achieved notable milestones that strengthen our network’s impact.

We obtained the status of Consultative Non-Governmental Organization with ECOSOC at the United Nations, solidifying our international presence. Guillermo Correa ́s inclusion in the IAVE Committee strengthened our representation in Latin America. We enthusiastically welcomed 41 new Civil Society Organizations to RACI, expanding our network to over 200 members by the end of the year. Additionally, we celebrated RACI’s appointment as the national coordinator for Good Deeds Day, showcasing our commitment to positive initiatives at both local and international levels.

In the realm of social investment, 2023 was a strategic year. We maximized investment in CSOs, with notable collaborations such as the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives, the New Zealand Embassy Fund in Mexico, the Karelsie Foundation, the Innovation Fund for Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Annual Social Inclusion Award. These associations enable us to manage funding for 38 projects and mobilize over $300,000 USD to drive CSO initiatives in Argentina.

Furthermore, we focused on knowledge management, producing key documents and conducting research to understand the current landscape of International Cooperation in our region. Through 243 surveys and 50 interviews in 19 countries, we provided crucial data for regional progress.

We appreciate your participation and continuous support for the growth of our country and the region.

Thank you for accompanying us!

Where is Latin America and the Caribbean located in the current scenario of International Cooperation? Is it a priority region on the donors’ agenda? What topics seem to be the most important for International Cooperation? Which populations or communities occupy a priority place?

We address these and other questions in our new research: “Trends in International Cooperation in Latin America and the Caribbean.” A study that seeks to provide current information to understand the scenario of International Cooperation in our region. At RACI, we make this analysis available based on the results of an open survey at the regional level, as well as interviews conducted with different actors from civil society and international cooperation.

We hope that the proposal contributes to providing tools to civil society organizations in the region on the current scenario of International Cooperation, identifying the main challenges and recommendations when working with this type of collaboration.