Some 40 leaders of foundations and international agencies which support projects in Latin America met in Madrid in January to explore the theme, Investing in Latin America and Caribbean: Opportunities for European foundations. Among participants at the meeting, organized by the Latin America and Caribbean Funders Network, were GIFE, the Brazil Human Rights Fund, the Avina Foundation, the Ford Foundation and the Bernard van Leer Foundation.

The preliminary results of the first comprehensive study of Spanish and Portuguese foundations’ programmes in Latin America were presented and participants stressed the need to extend the study to countries in the rest of Europe. Among other priority areas identified were the exchange of best practice, the encouragement of trisector partnerships, information dissemination, and an increase of cooperative activities among foundations based in Europe and Latin America and the Caribbean.

For more information, see http://www.efc.be/projects/ic/lacig.asp

CONFERENCES
2-6 May
Caribbean Regional Conference on Philanthropy
UWI/National Centre for Black Philanthropy
Montego Bay, Jamaica
Contact http://www.caribphilanthropy.org.jm/index.html

24-27 May
4th GIFE Conference on Private Social Investment
GIFE, Brazil
Curitiba, Brazil
Contact congresso2006@gife.org.br  http://www.gife.org.br

8-10 June
Latin American Social Enterprise Symposium
William Davidson Institute and NESsT  Santiago, Chile
Contact jmorgan@nesst.org  janigak@umich.edu