Lant Pritchett, a development economist and former Research Director of the Research on Improving Systems of Education (RISE) programme at the University of Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government, will deliver a keynote lecture on Monday, March 18 at the main headquarters of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in Santiago, Chile.
The prestigious U.S. scholar will give a talk entitled “When does education drive growth and when does it not? Education policies for transformative growth.” He will be received by José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, ECLAC’s Executive Secretary.
The presentation – due to begin at 11 a.m. local time (UTC/GMT -3) – will mark the conclusion of the Keynote Lecture Series that was organized to commemorate ECLAC’s 75th anniversary and has convened, since July 2023, prominent thinkers who shared their views and ideas regarding the challenges facing the world and the region.
A PhD holder in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Lant Pritchett is currently a visiting professor at the School of Public Policy of the London School of Economics and Political Science, and is the co-founder and research director of Labor Mobility Partnerships (LaMP).
He worked for the World Bank from 1988 to 2007. He also taught at the Harvard Kennedy School from 2000 to 2019, where he served, intermittently, as the Faculty Chair of the MPA/ID Degree program. From 2015 to 2023, he was the Research Director of the RISE Programme at the University of Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government.
He has published over 100 works with more than 50 co-authors. His work spans a wide range of development topics including economic growth, state capability, basic education, labor mobility and development assistance.
Pritchett will be the ninth and final lecturer to participate in the series organized to celebrate the seventy-fifth anniversary of ECLAC, which was founded in 1948 as one of the United Nations’ five regional commissions.
The lecture series began on July 24, 2023 with a presentation by Arancha González Laya, Dean of the Paris School of International Affairs (PSIA) at the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po), while August 18 marked the turn of prominent Colombian economist and former ECLAC Executive Secretary, José Antonio Ocampo.
On September 4, Aloizio Mercadante, President of the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES), gave a presentation on “The role of development banks in the transformation of the Latin American development model.” On September 28, Ricardo Hausmann, a Professor at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, delivered his lecture at ECLAC’s headquarters. And on October 25, Winston Dookeran, former Foreign Minister of Trinidad and Tobago and current Secretary-General of EUCLID University, visited ECLAC to speak about “Structure and Synergy in Development: The Caribbean Setting and its Future.”
On November 14, the renowned Spanish philosopher and professor Adela Cortina gave a presentation entitled “Reactions to migration in Latin America and the Caribbean: migration, aporophobia and ethical challenges for humanity.” Meanwhile, on November 24, the prominent Mexican economist and politician Santiago Levy, Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, addressed the matter of “Social protection and productivity in Latin America.”
Finally, on January 22, 2024, Daniel Innerarity, a professor of political and social philosophy and researcher at the Basque Foundation for Science (Ikerbasque) at the University of the Basque Country, analyzed the future of democracy in a digital society. The full list of lecturers is available here.
Members of the media are invited to attend this keynote lecture by Lant Pritchett, which will be held in the Raúl Prebisch conference room at ECLAC’s headquarters (Av. Dag Hammarskjöld 3477, Vitacura, Santiago, Chile). Journalists must have their media credentials or their IDs with them to gain entry and must get accredited in advance by emailing prensa@cepal.org.
The lecture will feature simultaneous interpretation in Spanish.
What: Keynote lecture by Lant Pritchett
Who:
When: Monday, March 18, 2024, 11:00 a.m. local time (UTC/GMT -03:00).
Where: ECLAC’s headquarters in Santiago, Chile (Av. Dag Hammarskjöld 3477, Vitacura), Raúl Prebisch conference room.
Virtual connection via various platforms:
ECLAC’s website: www.cepal.org
Special site for live transmission: https://live.cepal.org/75aniversario/
Official account on X: https://twitter.com/cepal_onu
Official account on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cepal.onu
