Partner and Executive Director

IDEA Foundation - Main think thank in Mexico

cagurto@fundacionidea.org.mx

Biography

Carolina Agurto is Partner and Executive Director of Economic Development at Fundación IDEA, one of the first and main think tanks in Mexico. Additionally, Carolina is the Head of the Digital Solutions Area focused on creating and implementing digital products to strengthen the outputs of IDEA’s public policy projects.

Since 2016, at Fundación IDEA Carolina had supervised and led more than 30 projects and researches for multilateral and international organizations (USAID, the U.S. Department of State, World Bank, IDB, etc.), private sector, and public sector related to regulatory policy, trade, innovation, entrepreneurship, IP, human capital, behavioral economics, etc. Her recent publications include: “What’s Missing for Boosting Mexico’s 5G Rollout? The Public Policy Landscape” (2021), “Strengths and weaknesses of the Mexican public procurement system of medicines” (2020), “The Importance of E-commerce, Digital Trade, and Maintaining the WTO E-commerce Customs Duty Moratorium” (2020), “Mexico’s Response to the Coronavirus Pandemic, at GTIPA Perspectives: COVID-19 Impacts on Public Health and the Economy of GTIPA Member Nations” (2020).

Previously, Carolina worked for the Institute for Justice on Entrepreneurship; the OECD; the Ministry of Economy and Finance of Peru; the Peruvian antitrust authority; among others.

Carolina holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics and an MPP from The University of Chicago, where she was a Fulbright Scholar, a grant recipient of the JJ/World Bank, and a Dean’s Scholar.

In 2015, Carolina was a fellow of Stanford University’s Hoover Institute and a summer fellow of The University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics.

Areas of Interest

Economic development with gender and social inclusion perspective,
Entrepreneurship,
Business creation and regulatory barriers.

Offer:

I offer the following knowledge and high-level contacts that might be of interest to the participants:

1) At Fundación IDEA, we have not only focused on executing projects in Mexico but also in other countries of the Americas and Asia. In this sense, we have developed evidence-based and proven tools and methodologies for the analysis and evaluation of public policies in different sectors that may be of interest to the attendees and that could be susceptible to innovation. For example, M&E strategies for projects related to climate change, skill gap identification and evaluation of the aircraft/aerospace, Telecomm and manufacturing Mexican sectors, strengthening of policing and criminal justice institutions, PMO practices for IT, and disruptive technologies (e.g. blockchain) related projects, among others.

2) In more than 15 years of operation of Fundación IDEA we have developed a network of multisectoral and multidisciplinary high-level contacts and experts. We have developed a relationship with senior officials and academics from multilateral organizations (e.g. IDB, ADB, IFC, WB, OECD), the private sector (e.g. Eli Lilly, Microsoft, P&G, FEMSA, Huawei, Nissan), foundations, and similar (e.g. Endeavor, Start-Up Mexico, The Woodrow Wilson Center - WWC, LSE), international cooperation (e.g. USAID, GIZ, UNDP, UK Embassy, US Embassy); governmental institutions of Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Uruguay, Honduras, El Salvador, and the US; among others.

3) In addition to the above, I participate in high-level forums and discussions, in which market rules have been defined and have resulted in more formal initiatives such as laws and regulations. For example, I currently represent Mexico in the Global Trade and Innovation Policy Alliance, which brings together more than 30 think tanks of the world regarding innovation and trade; and, I co-lead the organization of the High-Level Innovation Forums for Mexican Policymakers. Since 2013, together with the WWC, we organize an annual closed-door forum that brings together Mexican legislators working on issues related to innovation. These events include panels and discussion tables with businessmen, entrepreneurs, legislators, politicians, and other national and foreign experts on the subject, where trends and barriers to innovation in Mexico are discussed. The next edition of the mentioned forum will take place on January 2022 (which was originally postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic) and the themes that will be covered are aligned to the next ACE’s ones: fintech and cybersecurity, data-driven health policy, agriculture, and technology, among others.

Mexico

Carolina

Agurto Salazar