Uruguayan Atlas Network partners receive international recognition

The 2016 University of Pennsylvania “Global Go-To Think Tank Index” is a comprehensive survey of over 7,500 scholars, journalists, donors, and policy makers which ranks more than 6,500 think tanks around the world for their effectiveness and influence. Three Atlas Network partner organizations in Uruguay received recognition by the index for their efforts to promote freedom in their country and throughout South America.

Centro de Estudios de la Realidad Económica y Social (CERES)

CERES was ranked the eighth best think tank in the Central and South America region by the 2016 UPenn Index. CERES’ work includes economic research on Uruguay’s development, and the creation of a Latin American External Conditions Index to categorize and identify external influences on the development of Latin American economies.

Centro de Estudios para el Desarrollo (CED)

Ranked as the best new think tank in Latin America by the 2016 UPenn Index, CED is directed by former Atlas Network Smith Fellow Hernán Bonilla. CED hosted numerous events featuring speakers such as executive director of Fundación Para el Progreso Axel Kaiser, Argentine economist Ricardo López Murphy, president of the Foundation for Economic Education Lawrence Reed, and governor of Buenos Aires María Eugenia Vidal. Media coverage in El Pais, the country’s most influential newspaper, and Radio Rural, a national radio program, contributes to CED’s status as one of the country’s fastest growing and most influential think tanks.

Centro de Economía, Sociedad y Empresa (Centro ESE)

The focus of Centro ESE has been to improve Uruguay’s ranking on the Fraser Institute’s Economic Freedom of the World Report, and the organization has been making significant strides in doing so. A three-year project concluding in 2017, Centro ESE received an Atlas Network Leveraging Indices for Free Enterprise (LIFE) grant. Supported generously by the John Templeton Foundation, the LIFE project provided grants to 16 Atlas Network partner organizations to promote policy changes for freer economies in their countries. These policy successes are measured by the partner’s nation’s ranking on a variety of economic freedom reports — including the Economic Freedom of the World Report from the Fraser Institute, another Atlas Network partner.

Along with the work done by Centro ESE, the organization’s director, Ignacio Munyo, mentors young Uruguayan economists as part of Centro ESE’s Young Professionals Program.

CERES, CED, and Centro ESE are partner organizations of Atlas Network. Each has received grants to support their respective missions in Uruguay.