Welcome to the Summit of the
Futures Laboratories at the Local Level in Latin America and the Caribbean
March 23 - June 1, 2024
Conscious that the UN Summit of the Future, programmed for September 22-23, 2024, will comprise contributions of governments and parallely, civil society, the Visionary Ethics Foundation proposes to consolidate our initiative for Futures Laboratories at the local level.
We consider it an opportune time to polish our focus on "Futures Laboratories at the local level" in Latin America and the Caribbean. During March 23 - June 1 (six saturdays), we will have the opportunity to attend, address, dialogue and dream together virtually.
We focus our attention on local level initiatives, thereby supporting the economic, social, cultural and environmental rights of the citizens of our territories, anticipating a future where no one is left behind.
Jan Hurwitch
Excecutive Director, FEV
FEV is a non-profit Foundation, dedicated to promoting awareness on issues of poverty, socio-environmental justice and climate change. We have committed ourselves to the construction of an ethical society, elimination of poverty and access to basic human rights: economic, social and environmental; to choose a full life in freedom.
In this context, FEV will hold the Latin American summit for Laboratories of the Future at the local level from March 23 until June 1, 2024.
Laboratories of the Future at the local level is an educational task that we have carried out since 2022, with the purpose of developing strategic thinking, foresight as a vision of the future, with the participation of people in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru and the Dominican Republic.
Our conceptual guide is the UN Common Agenda 2021, which contains the guiding principles and states: "...it is time to think long-term, to do more for youth and future generations and to better prepare for the challenges that lie ahead..." Likewise, it states: "...it is time for us to have a stronger, more interconnected and inclusive multilateral system, with the United Nations as its axis. Effective multilateralism depends on the United Nations being effective as well, capable of adapting to global challenges and, at the same time, live up to the purposes and principles of its Charter..."
Navi Rodriguez, Coordinator for Central America, FEV
In Latin America, governments apply macroeconomic, sectoral and social policies that in most cases generate positive effects on the average growth of the country, although insufficient to include rural territories in the dynamics of progress and national well-being.
The challenge is to influence both the average growth of the country and the achievement of territorial and social equity, through the implementation of inclusive growth models for social cohesion so that citizens, society and rural territories have opportunities to express their human and development potential.
To take on the challenge posed, the territorial perspective of future laboratories offers a powerful resource to: develop the capabilities to integrate different viewpoints and visions essential to address the complexity of development processes; help in the construction of hopeful narratives that excite and enhance human and relational capacities for impact in rural territories and at the national, regional and global levels, and; development of rigorous, solid, serious conceptual and methodological frameworks committed to the development of public goods.
Byron Miranda, Advisor, FEV
The climate change that humanity is facing has generated a series of local and global problems that require urgent intervention and effective solutions to address them. The magnitude and scope of this phenomenon and the need to confront it have led to talk of a climate emergency.
This climate emergency is related to the environment, which is the entire biophysical system that supports human activity through time. However, the idea of "future" is basic to "sustainability". The Brundtland Report defines sustainability in terms of the future: “Sustainable development is a development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (CMMAD 1988: 67).
There are two central questions determining our labs-visionary ethics: (1) What are the essential qualities to maintain sustainability in the future, and (2) How can we help “Laboratories of the future-participants” to become good Environment-Guardians? Our objective is not to present a definitive answer to these questions, but to discuss an umbrella model of levels of change that could serve as a framework for reflection and development as well as implications for new directions in visionary ethics.
Ricardo Russo, Environmental Advisor, FEV
Faced with the current challenges that humanity faces around our Planet, Economic, Social, Cultural and Environmental Rights (ESCER) are presented as a fundamental tool to find solutions of justice for our societies. The new justiciability of ESCER enables their enforceability as universal human rights in order to achieve more equitable and supportive societies, where no one is left behind. Thus, we must understand that 90% of the sustainable development objectives are not just goals but ESCER!
For its part, the recent recognition of the right to a healthy environment as a human right and the global advance in the recognition and protection of the Rights of Nature are fundamental steps for our humanity, but with the need to abandon anthropocentrism and move towards a Eco-Systemic perspective. In short, these are great steps towards the conscious evolution of our Mother Earth for the future!
Jorge Calderon
FEV ESCER Advisor
UN Independent Expert - Harmony with Nature