We are thrilled to announce that Miguel Saravia is joining the Hub South America Team as Director. Here, he tells us about himself and why he joined the team 🌿
Who are you and what’s your background?
I am a senior manager with 30 years of professional experience in sustainable development in the Andean-Amazon region. I was previously Director of Knowledge Management at the Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas (UPC) and the first Executive Director of the Consortium for Sustainable Development of the Andean Ecoregion (CONDESAN – a former CGIAR's Ecoregional Programme). I have led organizations, projects, research networks, regional programs, and policy dialogue processes regarding sustainable development that have brought together non-governmental experts, academics, and decision-makers on local, national, regional, and international levels. As part of the CGIAR’s Challenge Program on Water and Food, I led the Andean Region hub, supervising projects in several Andean countries (Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia). I have also been Chair of the Board of the Permanent Seminar on Agricultural Research (SEPIA, Peru); a member of the Board of the International Mountain Society (IMS, Switzerland); a member of the Steering Committee of the Mountain Partnership; and a member of the Board of the Peruvian Scientific Network.
Why did you join the Academy?
I fell in love with its mission to transform scientific knowledge into action. It is not a mechanical process to disseminate knowledge, but a complex dialogue process where scientists, practitioners, and decision makers sit together with the common interest of building sustainable solutions to improve people's lives and protect the environment. Another aspect that motivated me to join the Wyss Academy was the possibility to insert these local solutions into a more complex process, with connections to other territories beyond the national or regional frontiers.
What do you look forward to working on?
I hope to contribute to the development of innovative solutions that benefit both nature and people. Working at the Wyss Academy will allow me to foster local and national dialogue processes and develop novel transformative solutions, pilot them, and scale them up. And I will be able to participate in a bigger policy process, communicating with stakeholders from beyond the region in order to increase the impact of our locally rooted innovations.
