Alumnus and former Chevening Scholar, Rodrigo Saavedra Bórquez (MBA International Management 2016) was chosen to participate in last year’s The Economy of Francesco, a global summit of young economists, entrepreneurs and change makers from 120 countries.
The aim of The Economy of Francesco summit was to create a youth-led global congress to redefine and reimagine solutions to the economic, social and environmental problems of our time through exchange and collaboration. The event was organised through workshops called ‘thematic villages’ that challenged participants to build their proposals related to their village theme.
Rodrigo, who currently works as a Policy Advisor at Universidad San Sebastián in Santiago, Chile, was chosen as one of 500 ‘Global Change Makers’ to participate in this event, specifically for his work in local development in the Chilean Southern Patagonia, designed with input from the people in the territory and evidence based policy theory, which was recognised as a relevant economic and policy proposal that could be replicated.
“My ‘village’ was called Policies and happiness,” Rodrigo explains. “More than 100 people from across the world participated and we were considered to be the opening village of the event. Our proposals were commented on and praised by people like American economist Jeffrey Sachs and Bangladeshi social entrepreneur Mohammed Yunus.
“I was interviewed by Chilean media about my participation, where I highlighted that beyond the technical proposals, the event was a practical and challenging exercise of reaching agreements among a diverse group of people with different backgrounds and interests.”
Since this success, Rodrigo has been accepted into the Japanese International Cooperation Agency graduate specialisation programme for international development, for which he was awarded a full scholarship.
