Day 1 of #TheExchangeRio

SERIES News and Announcements

This is the first day of the last meeting of The Exchange programme. Only Ermy from Article 33 in Indonesia was not able to attend due to being on maternity leave. The rest of the participants are present.

The day started with an introduction to CEBRI, our hosts. We learned that:

CEBRI is the first think tank on international affairs in Brazil. Brazil, as a big country, had always looked inwards. It had a self-sufficient attitude that lasted about 200 years (since its independence from Portugal).In the last 20 years, however, it has become apparent that this is not approach is not sustainable. CEBRI is part of a new breed of organisations that are now studying foreign policy and promoting Brazil’s integration with the rest.

CEBRI concentrates on a few policy issues: including defence and sustainability.

Rio provides an interesting setting for think tanks in Brazil.Rio is home to CEBRI and FGV; Sao Paulo is larger and has think tanks with closer ties to business; and Brasilia has a think tank hosted by Itamarati. Rio/CEBRI/FGV provide an interesting balance between the power of business in Sao Paulo and the state in Brasilia. Rio is an international city. It is a gateway to the rest of the world. It provides a perspective to the views from Sao Paulo and Brasilia.

CEBRI has a small office with few staff and wish to remain that way. They need to remain flexible and reallocate their experts to projects as they emerge.

Private and public corporations are interested in CEBRI’s insights and support to effectively compete internationally.

After the presentation the teams got on with their work. Their draft cases and synthesis reports have received comments from The Exchange’s organisers and from an editor recruited to support the publication process.

At the end of the day, the teams had set themselves the following objectives:

Communications

Objectives for the week

  • Finish the synthesis by Wednesday. We have divided the work to start
  • Presentations
  • Develop options for future collaboration –concept idea- to take advantage of the face to face meeting
  • Picture on the boat for the team

Objectives for the month

  • Finish the case studies
  • Prepare a proper concept note

PSATT

Objectives for the week

  • “World café” on each case study to provide feedback
  • Brainstorm any info-graphics to use in the synthesis report
  • Write up opportunity and challenge of collaboration
  • Final version of each of the case studies
  • Draft version of the synthesis report

Objectives for the month

  • Final version of everything