The Latimpacto 2023 Impact Minds Conference has been an emotional event for me: I left feeling a mix of joy, inspiration, humility, and optimism at the same time. Here is why:
I am absolutely amazed at how much the Latimpacto team has accomplished in such little time, especially having started under adverse circumstances, during the toughest pandemic period of 2020. The fact that a remarkable community of 600 social investors (from philanthropists and foundations to impact funds, corporations, and others) came together from across Latin America is a testament to the fact that the region very much needed this platform to connect, learn and collaborate for a greater impact. We had envisioned this when a small group of us set out to build Latimpacto, but under Carolina Suarez’s tireless leadership, this extraordinary team has surpassed our expectations of pace, reach, innovation, and service to the community. I am very proud and deeply grateful for the support of so many remarkable Latin American leaders who made a bet on this transformative effort. Which leads me to the next point;
I am truly inspired by the incredible talent, dynamism, creativity, commitment, and ambition of the community of Latin American social investors: There is no doubt that Latin America has the talent it needs to address the region’s acute social and environmental challenges. To social investors from outside the region, I say: Rest assured that you will find world-class partners in the region – Latimpacto can help you do so. I was thrilled that the senior leaders from some of the most renowned foundations from the Global North, such as Don Gips, CEO of Skoll Foundation, Natalye Paquin, COO of Rockefeller Foundation, and Dr. Nicolas Peter, Chairman of BMW Foundation were able to witness this firsthand in Rio.
I am, at the same time, humbled by the magnitude of the challenges the region faces, from social to environmental: The Latimpacto team and its partners thoughtfully organized a few site visits for us to gain a glimpse of such challenges, and to witness some examples of worthy local initiatives that are working to address them. I had the opportunity to visit Pequena África (Little Africa), a very sombre reminder of the brutal tragedy of millions of African slaves forcibly brought to Brazil and the Americas. Latin America remains the most unequal region in the world. The region’s Afro-descendants and diverse Indigenous communities lack access to the same opportunities and living standards as the rest of the population. There is much work to be done in this space, even within this very community of social investors, where Afro-descendants and Indigenous peoples are still underrepresented -a stark reminder of a regional challenge that Latimpacto’s leadership is committed to addressing.
I am encouraged and optimistic by the evidence that Latimpacto is already making a real difference: New funds, such as the ‘Catalytic Green Fund for the Amazon’, championed by Latimpacto together with the IDB Lab, is just on example of many that show how the community is mobilizing new resources towards social and environmental impact. I am convinced that this is only the beginning.
That is why I am also so excited about Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisor’s partnership with Latimpacto: We are very aligned in our mission to accelerate the transformation of philanthropy and social investment for a just world. In Río, we partnered to launch the Spanish and Portuguese versions of RPA’s Impact Investment Handbook, a guide for practitioners to engage in impact investments – as one more way to help mobilize more capital towards impact. I look forward to our journey ahead to advance this mission in Latin America.
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