scholarly journals Tech Latinas: Latin American Women for Technology

10.28945/4843 ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 001-029
Author(s):  
Ry Schill ◽  
Angela Schill ◽  
Noah Schill

Aim/Purpose: The directors of Tech Latinas were happy with what they had created and the impact their company had made in Ecuador, Peru and Guatemala. Now that they had seen their vision come to fruition in ways that were astounding to them. They wanted to take the next steps in growing their business so Tech Latinas mission could spread beyond its current bounds. Before working out the logistics, the Tech Latina team expanded their vision. They wanted to scale Tech Latinas throughout Latin America. They hoped to find the best talent among the 37 million young women in these countries who were currently either unemployed or informally employed. They estimated that 1.2 million web developers in Latin America would be required that by 2025. Background: The entrepreneurial tech wave has hit Latin America hard, and it appears to be gaining momentum. A new generation of millennials and post-millennials, led by a group of early entrepreneurs in their late 30s to early 50s, believes that it can improve lives by creating new and better solutions to everyday problems. One such area is teaching coding and tech skills to women who live in middle to low-income Latin American households. Despite the advantages and opportunities, there are also great obstacles to make it all happen in Latin America. Some cultural and some systemic. Culturally, Latin Americans are very averse to risk, and most only invest in “secure” ventures such as real estate. The lack of financial education is a key factor that does not allow potential entrepreneurs to thrive. On the systemic side, corruption, lack of institutional trust and impunity are probably the biggest hurdles to surpass in the next few years. Companies need to think globally and compete against global competitors. Methodology: Data was collected through a qualitative approach with several in-depth interviews Contribution: In following trends of Latin American growth and development, the main opportunities will end up being in the technology sector as advances in education and know-how disseminate. The hope is that this knowledge gap will provide jobs for millions trying to lift themselves out of poverty. Findings: That nascent ventures in Latin America face different and unique challages. The ability to scale and the lack of capital that would invest in social causes is unfortunately scarce in the region. This makes it difficult to Recommendations for Practitioners: This case could be used for discussion around lessons from emerging market entrepreneurship. Many strategies of the struggles and triumphs of Latin American entrepreneurs are worth noting as practitioners due to the acute necessity-driven approach to many Latin American entrepreneurs toward venture success. Recommendation for Researchers: Maybe employing a scale of some sort to differentiate net impact socially and economically these tech educational training facilities Impact on Society: That there is a need to support organic entrepreneurial efforts in not only gaining returns but supporting social causes that lift societies. Also, it is a wise investment to invest in women and in emerging economies. Future Research: It would be interesting to further follow the Tech Latinas and other initiatives in this area of knowledge transfer and economic development. It would be interesting to do a study or a scale of results of impact between countries not only in Latin America but other women coding and IT training efforts around the world.

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
José Rojas-Suarez ◽  
Niza Suarez ◽  
Oier Ateka-Barrutia

Maternal mortality is an important indicator of health in populations around the world. The distribution of maternal mortality ratio globally shows that middle- and low-income countries have ∼99% of the mortality burden. Most countries of Latin America are considered to be middle- or low-income countries, as well as areas of major inequities among the different social classes. Medical problems in pregnancy remain an important cause of morbidity and mortality in this region. Previous data indicate the need for a call to action for adequate diagnosis and care of medical diseases in obstetric care. The impact of nonobstetric and medical pathologies on maternal mortality in Latin America is largely unknown. In Latin America, two educational initiatives have been proposed to improve skills in maternity care. The Advanced Life Support in Obstetrics (ALSO®) was first started to address obstetric emergencies, and subsequently adapted for low-middle-income country settings as the Global ALSO®. In parallel, the Latin American obstetric anesthesia community has progressively focused on improvement of several intrapartum/intraoperative issues, which has secondarily taken them to embrace the obstetric medicine area on interest and join the former initiatives. In the present review, we summarize the available data regarding medical morbidity and mortality in pregnancy in Latin America, as well as the challenges, achievements, issues, initiatives, and future directions encouraging maternal health educators, health care trainers, and physicians in middle- and low-income countries, such as many Latin American ones, to improve and/or change attitudes, if needed, on current clinical practice.


1978 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 593-614 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Collier

The recent emergence of harshly repressive military governments in several of the industrially most advanced nations of Latin America has called into question earlier hypotheses of modernization theory regarding the links between socioeconomic modernization and democracy. Guillermo O'Donnell has made an important contribution to explaining this new authoritarianism and to using the recent Latin American experience as a basis for proposing a major reformulation of the earlier hypotheses. Yet O'Donnell's analysis requires significant modification if its potential contribution is to be realized. Highly aggregated conceptual categories such as “bureaucratic-authoritarianism” should be abandoned, and his explanatory framework should be broadened to explicity incorporate the crucial political differences among Latin American countries, as well as the impact of the international economic and political system. A revised explanation for the rise of authoritarianism is presented to illustrate how some of these modifications could be applied in future research on political change in Latin America.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (5) ◽  
pp. 152-164
Author(s):  
A. R. KELEKHSAEVA ◽  

The article examines poverty and inequality as serious long-term and widespread problems in society. Research on poverty has been mainly conducted from the perspective of economics, now the focus has shifted to psychological aspects with an emphasis on the causes and consequences of poverty. The overall economic disaster that COVID-19 will leave in Latin America and the Caribbean remains to be seen, but its impact on social well-being portends a bleak future. After seven years of slow growth, the region's GDP fell 5,3%, the largest drop in a century. According to a joint report submitted by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the impact of the pandemic could plunge an additional 16 million people into extreme poverty in 2020, resulting in 83,4 million Hispanics will live in complete poverty. These organizations warn that hunger will be the biggest problem facing the region, where 53,7 million people are already surviving severely food insecure. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between poverty and inequality as economic categories in the context of their impact on the countries of Latin America. To do this, the authors examined the key factors affecting poverty and inequality, analyzed trends in poverty and inequality in Latin America and the Latin Basin. The article is based on research on poverty and inequality in macroeconomic theory. In particular, the works of Y. Amiel, F. Cowell, T. Buhard, P. Wizard, the study of socio-economic inequality and the fight against poverty – G. Babeuf, I. Bentham, J. M. Keynes, V. Paret, G. Spencer, L. Erhard, K. Arrow, D. Rocardo, A. Pigou and many others are devoted to the problem of inequality. Significant results of studies of poverty and welfare are given in the works of prominent foreign researchers: P. Townsend, A. Sen, D. Sachs, M. Orshan-sky, T. Marshall, F. Hayek, thanks to which the system of ideas about poverty was formed. The importance of poverty and its impact on government discourses, policies and programs has fueled much research on a Latin American scale. Publications on this topic have been rolled out over the past three decades and have created a veritable battlefield. Poverty reduction is a key development challenge facing Latin America and the Caribbean. Inequality is one of the historical problems in Latin America, one of the factors that most paralyzes the eco-nomic and social aspirations of most countries in the region. Poverty reduction can be understood in both a limited and a broad sense. The first involves a focus on programs and projects that target the poor – vocational training programs for low-income people, food stamps, productivity projects in the informal sector, and care for mothers and children in communities that do not have access to this service, etc. These programs are usually funded from so-called emergency funds and social investments, although they may also be specialized activities of the minis-tries or secretariats that make up the “social sector”. On the other hand, the broader definition of poverty reduction includes economic policies and traditional social policies (especially education and health). One of the main ways to solve this problem in the medium and long term obliges countries to move towards a universal basic income, giving priority to families with children and adolescents, and to maintain universal, comprehensive and sustainable social protection systems, increase their coverage as a central component of the new welfare state. A broad and lasting consensus and political commitment are required to make significant improvements in education, health and well-being. Unfortunately, some Latin American coun-tries have serious governance problems that hinder the effective functioning of democratic systems due to fragmentation and lack of policy consensus. For this reason, stability and continuity of economic and social policies are an indispensable element for the development of nations and the progress of peoples.


Author(s):  
Giorgia Gon ◽  
Abdunoor M. Kabanywanyi ◽  
Petri Blinkhoff ◽  
Simon Cousens ◽  
Stephanie J. Dancer ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Healthcare associated infections (HAI) are estimated to affect up to 15% of hospital inpatients in low-income countries (LICs). A critical but often neglected aspect of HAI prevention is basic environmental hygiene, particularly surface cleaning and linen management. TEACH CLEAN is an educational intervention aimed at improving environmental hygiene. We evaluated the effectiveness of this intervention in a pilot study in three high-volume maternity and newborn units in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Methods This study design prospectively evaluated the intervention as a whole, and offered a before-and-after comparison of the impact of the main training. We measured changes in microbiological cleanliness [Aerobic Colony Counts (ACC) and presence of Staphylococcus aureus] using dipslides, and physical cleaning action using gel dots. These were analysed with descriptive statistics and logistic regression models. We used qualitative (focus group discussions, in-depth interviews, and semi-structured observation) and quantitative (observation checklist) tools to measure why and how the intervention worked. We describe these findings across the themes of adaptation, fidelity, dose, reach and context. Results Microbiological cleanliness improved during the study period (ACC pre-training: 19%; post-training: 41%). The odds of cleanliness increased on average by 1.33 weekly during the pre-training period (CI = 1.11–1.60), and by 1.08 (CI = 1.03–1.13) during the post-training period. Cleaning action improved only in the pre-training period. Detection of S. aureus on hospital surfaces did not change substantially. The intervention was well received and considered feasible in this context. The major pitfalls in the implementation were the limited number of training sessions at the hospital level and the lack of supportive supervision. A systems barrier to implementation was lack of regular cleaning supplies. Conclusions The evaluation suggests that improvements in microbiological cleanliness are possible using this intervention and can be sustained. Improved microbiological cleanliness is a key step on the pathway to infection prevention in hospitals. Future research should assess whether this bundle is cost-effective in reducing bacterial and viral transmission and infection using a rigorous study design.


2003 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 721-750 ◽  
Author(s):  
ROBERT ANDOLINA

A crucial development in current Latin American politics is the growing involvement of indigenous movements in democracies grappling with the challenges of regime consolidation. This article examines how Ecuador's indigenous movement consecrated new rights and national constitutive principles in the 1997–8 constitutional assembly. It argues that the indigenous movement defined the legitimacy and purpose of the assembly through an ideological struggle with other political actors, in turn shaping the context and content of constitutional reforms in Ecuador. The article concludes that softening the boundary between ‘cultural politics’ and ‘institutional politics’ is necessary in order to understand the impact of social movements in Latin America.


2021 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Olivia Hernandez-Pozas ◽  
Maria Jose Murcia ◽  
Enrique Ogliastri ◽  
Miguel R. Olivas-Lujan

PurposeThis article introduces readers to the Special Issue (SI, 34-1) of ARLA, edited (not exclusively) with the best papers of the Academy of Management's Specialized Conference, scheduled for April 2020 in Mexico City. The COVID-19 pandemic forced its cancellation, but the expert peer review and editorial work continued, to contribute to the emerging literature on Latin American Management and Sustainability.Design/methodology/approachGuest editors contributed their expertise based on required editorial processes and focused literature reviews on Management and Sustainability.FindingsThere are large management and sustainability challenges to Latin American practitioners and researchers, resulting in an increasingly urgent need to systematically document similarities and differences in the fields of Management and Sustainability. It is so because the region has been affected as few others before, during and after the pandemic. Thus, this issue summarizes the literature, presents eight new studies and offers suggestions for future research.Research limitations/implicationsManagement and sustainability in Latin America are wide subjects, with different dimensions and issues. This is a specific contribution that leaves much ground to be covered in the different subfields of the area, in research methodologies and conclusions.Originality/valueAn agenda for advancing the field of management and sustainability in Latin America, highlighted by the COVID-19 disruption; additionally, eight of the most advanced research in the field are presented, chosen from two tracks of a large number of contributions to a recent specialized conference organized by the Academy of Management.


2021 ◽  
pp. 097491012110616
Author(s):  
Natalia I. Doré ◽  
Aurora A. C. Teixeira

The factors required to achieve sustainable economic growth in a country are debated for decades, and empirical research in this regard continues to grow. Given the relevance of the topic and the absence of a comprehensive, systematic literature review, we used bibliometric techniques to examine and document several aspects in the empirical literature related to growth, from 1991 to 2020. Five main results are worth highlighting: (a) the share of empirical articles on economic growth show a clear upward trend; (b) among all the groups of countries considered, the emerging economies (EEs) have received the most scientific attention; (c) the economic growth processes of the Latin American and Caribbean EEs have observed negligible scientific attention; (d) the very long-run studies comprise a residual share among the empirical literature on growth; (e) the extant empirical studies on economic growth have addressed mainly the impact of “macroeconomic conditions.” Our findings suggest there is a need to redirect the empirical growth agenda, so as to encourage more scientific attention devoted to the analysis of key determinants of economic growth in the very long run. There should also be increased scrutiny of the processes of economic growth in Latin American and Caribbean EEs


2008 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 279-308
Author(s):  
Jean-Pierre Allegret ◽  
Alain Sand-Zantman

This paper assesses the monetary consequences of the Latin-American integration process. Over the period 1991-2007, we analyze a sample of five Latin-American countries focusing on the feasibility of a monetary union between L.A. economies. To this end, we study the issue of business cycle synchronization with the occurrence of common shocks. First, we assess the international disturbances influence on the domestic business cycles. Second, we analyze the impact of the adoption of different exchange rate regimes on the countries' responses to shocks. .


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriel de Albuquerque Vasconcelos ◽  
Rodrigo Montenegro Barreira ◽  
Karmelita Emanuelle Nogueira Torres Antoniollo ◽  
Alina Maria Nuñez Pinheiro ◽  
Cíntia Fernandes Rodrigues Maia ◽  
...  

Autoimmune encephalitis is an increasingly recognized cause of encephalitis. The majority of case series report patients residing in developed countries in the northern hemisphere. The epidemiologic features of autoimmune encephalitis in Latin America are still unclear. The aim of the study was to perform a review of the clinical presentation of autoimmune encephalitis in Latin America and compare to world literature. References were identified by an in-depth literature search and selected on the basis of relevance to the topic and authors' judgment. We selected clinical studies and case reports published from 2007 to July, 2020 including patients from Latin American countries. Of the 379 patients included, the majority were cases of anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis (93.14%), followed by anti-VGKC-complex encephalitis (N = 17; 4.48%), anti-GAD encephalitis (N = 9; 2.37%), anti-AMPA receptor encephalitis (N = 1; 0.26%), anti-GABA receptor encephalitis (N = 1; 0. 26%), anti-mGluR5 encephalitis (N = 1; 0. 26%), and anti-mGluR1 encephalitis (N = 1; 0. 26%). Reported cases of Anti-NMDA encephalitis in Latin-America had a very slight female predominance, lower prevalence of associated tumors and a lower incidence of extreme delta brush on electroencephalogram. Autoimmune encephalitis is possibly underdiagnosed in underdeveloped countries. Its outcome after treatment, however, appears to be similarly favorable in Latin American patients as has been reported in developed countries based on available case reports and case series. Regional specificities in the manifestation of autoimmune encephalitis could be related to epidemiologic factors, such as the presence of different triggers and different genetic and immunologic background, that need to be studied by future research.


2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmed Atef Oussii ◽  
Neila Boulila Taktak

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether there is any relationship between the effectiveness of an audit committee and the financial reporting timeliness of Tunisian listed companies as proxied by external audit delay (AD). Analysis focuses on five audit committee characteristics: authority, financial expertise, independence, size and diligence. Design/methodology/approach Empirical tests address 162 firm-year observations drawn from Tunisian listed companies during 2011-2013. Findings Multivariate analyses indicate that audit committees with members who have financial expertise are significantly associated with shorter AD. Thus, the results suggest that audit committee financial expertise contributes to the improvement of financial statements’ timeliness. Research limitations/implications The audit committee attributes examined in this study were based on DeZoort et al. (2002) framework. There could be other aspects of audit committee effectiveness such as audit committee tenure and audit committee chair characteristics, which were not addressed in the present study. Thus, future research may consider and examine these other components of audit committee effectiveness. Practical implications Findings have managerial implications. Companies can re-look into how to further improve audit committee composition in order to enhance the timeliness of financial reporting. The issues of audit committee effectiveness and timely reporting also affect regulators and policy makers since they need to play a role in the establishment of effective audit committees and the improvement of financial reporting timeliness. Originality/value This study is one of few that have examined the impact of audit committee effectiveness on ADs in an emerging market country. Findings lend credence to the belief that audit committee members’ financial expertise enhances the quality of financial reporting by firms in a North African market criticized for the lack of maturity of its corporate governance system (Klibi, 2015; Fitch Ratings, 2009).


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