Dear Friends of the Institute:
In April the United States hosted the first Cities Summit of the Americas in Denver, Colorado with an agenda to promote expanded regional cooperation across the Western Hemisphere. The meeting was attended by over 4,000 subnational governmental leaders as well as representatives of government, civil society, business, academia, youth, culture and the arts, and indigenous and underrepresented groups. At the Cities Summit, The Institute of the Americas played an active role.
In partnership with CAF-the Latin American Development Bank (CAF), IOA organized a panel discussion on e-mobility for public & private transport. Just prior to the Summit, CAF and IOA also co-organized an e-mobility & sustainable transportation focused site visit of Latin American Mayors and transportation leaders to San Diego.
At the Cities Summit, CAF and IOA also formalized a strategic partnership with the signing of an MOU and with a focus on expanding our collaboration in the areas of energy transition and decarbonization, sustainable mobility, regional integration, the fight against climate change, sustainable urban development, trade and economic inclusion.
While at the Summit, the U.S. State Department formally announced its Cities Forward program that will be implemented in collaboration with ICELI, Resilient Cities Catalyst and the IOA.
Besides our growing portfolio of work on the subnational front, IOA is also maintaining its regional leadership on the issues of energy, environment & climate change and regional economic competitiveness.
This past week in Rio de Janeiro, and in partnership with CEBRI, we hosted our Brazil energy and Sustainability and Roundtable. The event and agenda themes sought to further inform the policy debate underway in Brazil with the new Lula government. IOA is also partnering with CEARE for our annual Energy Roundtable in Buenos Aires, set for August 22 just after the PASO and with the objective of assessing the energy policy platforms of the candidates in the October election.
On the Environment & Climate Change front, IOA team member, Catalina Lopez, completed work on an important study recently published in Science Advances highlighting the importance of marine protected areas towards enhancing the long-term prospect and sustainability of commercial fisheries. Together with other co-authors from UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography and National Geographic’s Pristine Seas program, IOA organized an all-day forum in Mexico City dubbed Un Día por los Mares (A Day for the Seas) that was attended by policymakers from the U.S., Ecuador, Panama, Mexico and other marine conservation leaders from throughout the Hemisphere.
Finally, IOA has also recently partnered with UC San Diego’s Center for US-Mexico Studies to support their North American Economic Competitiveness Working Group. Building on IOA’s growing work on the subnational front, we will be partnering with researchers from Mexico and Canada to undertake research focused on subnational economic development strategies to promote expanded near-sourcing to enhance North America’s economic competitiveness.
Thank you for all your on-going support of the Institute. We appreciate your continued interest in our work and look forward to staying in touch as we advance in our mission.
Wishing you a relaxing Summer!
Sincerely,
Richard Kiy
President & CEO
