Recursos e Investigacion para el Desarrollo Sustentable (RIDES) - [Chile]

Country and Region

• Chile, South America

Web Site

• http://www.rides.cl

Contact Information

• Hernan Blanco
  Andrés de Fuenzalida 22, Oficina 801
  Providencia, Santiago, Chile
  Phone: +(56 2) 2317565
  Fax: +(56 2) 2320616
  E-mail: hblanco@rides.cl

Overview

In March 2002, a group of senior researchers from different disciplines met and formed Recursos e Investigación para el Desarrollo Sustenable (RIDES), a private non-profit corporation, with the objective of promoting applied research that would enrich dialogue and generate tools and policies and in doing so contribute to sustainable development. RIDES is a Latin American centre of excellence for applied policy research, with an academic and scientific perspective creating analysis and encouraging multidisciplinary debate on subjects related to development and sustainability. RIDES perceives sustainable development as a process of dialogue that looks for an equilibrium between economic, social, environmental and institutional aspects in decision making, to guarantee equality for the current generations and those to come. Amongst others the organisation focuses on identifying gaps in policy and management and the necessary tools to make sustainable development the prevailing model of development. RIDES carries out diverse activities, such as: multidisciplinary applied research projects in development and sustainability; private and government financed projects aimed at generating knowledge, opportunities and experience based on free and open discussion of the subjects in question; sustainable development training programs aimed at private companies and public sector bodies; initiatives that will lend a better working relationship between academic, private and government sectors, aiming to educate, inform and facilitate an intersectional dialogue.

Trade and sustainable development
One key area of work in RIDES is “Trade and Sustainable Development”. Numerous projects have already been carried out in RIDES, and RIDES´s professionals´ experience is also heavily influenced by this topic. Some of the most recent examples of projects in this area are:

• Green markets – often a lost opportunity for developing countries?
• Trade in environmental goods and services
• Trade liberalization and its effects in the Chilean transport sector
• Standards for sustainable development

RIDES and/or the professionals working in RIDES form part of several important networks dedicated specifically at trade and sustainable development:

• Trade Knowledge Network
• Grupo Zapallar
• GETI (Working Group on Environment, Trade and Investment of IUCN's Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social Policy (CEESP) – webpage in elaboration)

Research

Within TKN, RIDES, together with CIPMA, carried out research entitled "Green Markets: often a lost opportunity for developing countries? A case study between Chile and the EU"

For further information on Rides research on trade and sustainable development click here.