Collaborative Research to Impact a Continent. The Public Policy and Rural Development in Latin America Network

From May 31 to June 2, 2022, the Public Policy and Rural Development in Latin America Network (PP-AL) organized an international seminar on “Public Policies, Food Systems and Rural Development before Environmental and Health Challenges: Balance and Perspective form the PP-AL Network”. The event was held in Mexico City, hosted by various Mexican scientific and educational institutions, especially UNAM’s Regional Center for Multidisciplinary Research (CRIM), as well as the Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD, French initials) and the French Embassy in Mexico.

The PP-AL Network is a collaborative research device that analyzes and monitors the dynamics of rural development public policies in Latin America and the Caribbean. It brings together an average of 150 researchers, professors, and doctoral students from more than 40 research teams and laboratories in 16 Latin American and Caribbean countries. It also incorporates university partners in Europe, Canada, and the United States. The work developed by the members of the PP-AL Network analyzes territorial issues with different methodologies and from several scientific perspectives with the participation of agronomists, anthropologists, economists, geographers, political scientists, and sociologists, among other professionals, who share their expertise and at the same time contribute to the training of postgraduates.

The seminar was also the occasion for the network to commemorate 10 years of activities, building a solid relationship between officers, decision-makers, academics, and stakeholders in participating countries.

In the introduction to the seminar, its importance, which marked the reactivation of face-toface scientific activities after the pandemic, was highlighted. Based on a review of the various impacts caused by the health emergency in Latin American rural areas, a scientific assessment was made, and the research agenda was reconsidered, given the changes that emerged due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In her opening remarks, Guadalupe Valencia García, UNAM’s coordinator of Humanities, highlighted the permanent participation of our university in meetings where scientific institutions’ role in studying the most pressing socio-territorial issues in contemporary society is debated and clarified. In this context, UNAM has positioned itself among the leading institutions in Latin America, and the importance of our university has been recognized. The CRIM was also recognized for its approach to sustainability, rural issues, and its incursion into new and better environmental practices.

Fernando Lozano Ascencio, Director of CRIM, and Gerardo Reza Calderón, General Director of UNAM’s Office for International Cooperation, emphasized the importance and scope of scientific meetings as this one, because they strengthen feedback and exchange of experiences between European and Latin American institutions, in which UNAM has a significant presence. Both academics welcomed the resumption of face-to-face scientific research activities.

The various French institutions involved in CIRAD and other instances of cooperation and research for rural development stressed the importance of the exchange and participation of scientific institutions in strengthening international cooperation in various countries of Latin America. They also noted the interest of scientific institutions to enhance the study of rural issues and their current problems, such as access to food and the consequences of climate change. This was just a sample of how important these encounters are, where different members of the network study the implementation of agricultural, environmental and rural development policies, particularly in terms of the struggle against inequality that the rural sector in Latin America continues to face.

At the end of the seminar, the relevance of the Network as a scientific and academic reference in the study of transformations in food systems in the face of climate and health changes was highlighted, as well as its role in search for more sustainable systems and socio-territorial justice. It was also concluded that both, collective scientific work developed by the Network is essential to contribute to good practices that benefit the rural and agricultural sector. It is especially relevant to highlight that groups as the PP-AL Network contribute to social transformation through its capacity to renew itself and to generate research lines and proposals in search for democratic, sustainable, and inclusive dynamics.

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