Who We Are

COPLA is run by a consortium of organisations:

ODI, UK
CIES, Peru
GNTP, Bolivia
Nitlapán, Nicaragua
CIPPEC, Argentina

Also participating:
La Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO), Argentina
Instituto Brasileiro de Administração Municipal (IBAM), Brazil

Overseas Development Institute (ODI), UK

ODI is Britain's leading independent think tank on international development and humanitarian issues. Our mission is to inspire and inform policy and practice which lead to the reduction of poverty, the alleviation of suffering and the achievement of sustainable livelihoods in developing countries. We do this by locking together high quality applied research, practical policy advice, and policy-focused dissemination and debate. We work with partners in the public and private sectors, in both developing and developed countries. ODI’s work centres on its research and policy groups and programmes.
Web www.odi.org.uk

Consorcio de Investigación Económica y Social (CIES), Peru

The Economic and Social Research Consortium - Consorcio de Investigación Económica y Social (CIES) - is an umbrella organization with over 40 institutional members among Peruvian academic, research and governmental institutions, and NGOs. The consortium was created in 1989 with Canadian support. Initially, it was named Consorcio de Investigación Económica (CIE) given its focus on only economic issues, and it consisted of five members.

A new CIES began its activities in 1999, building on the achievements of the previous ten years. CIES emphasizes the following aspects in the social and economic research it supports: quality, policy relevance and impact; the association between researchers, policy makers and other potential users of the results; competitive allocation of funding and research conducted through networks and multidisciplinary teams. It also seeks collaborative partnerships with academic institutions in Canada, USA and other countries (especially in the Andean region) and supports the training of researchers. Additionally CIES disseminates research results through seminars, publications, internet and the media. From 1999 to 2005, CIES has supported more than 300 research projects carried out by its associates and raised funds in excess of US$10 million. Policy research funded by CIES has influenced macroeconomic policy, health reform, teachers training, and official estimates of poverty among other public policies and programs.
web www.cies.org.pe

Grupo Nacional de Trabajo para la Participación (GNTP), Bolivia

GNTP, established in 1994, is a learning community made up of around forty development institutions and individuals who are seeking to encourage civil society participation at all levels in Bolivia with the aim of reducing poverty.

Currently, GNTP is directing its efforts towards the new challenges raised by civil society participation in defining and implementing public policies on a local and national level. GNTP channels its efforts regionally and thematically. At present, consolidated Regional Groups are working in Potosí and Tarija whilst the regional groups in La Paz, Santa Cruz and Cochabamba are in the process of consolidation. Thematically, we focus most strongly on Participative Methodologies, Social Control and Participation, Wellbeing and Poverty, Local Participative Governance, Learning and Change, Public Policy Law and Influence, Managing and Protecting Natural Resources.
web www.gntp.org

Nitlapán, Nicaragua

Nitlapán is an applied research institute which encourages local development. The institute forms part of the Central American University (UCA), one of the three universities that the Company of Jesus has in Central America. Nitlapán contributes to overcoming poverty, marginalisation, and the exclusion of women and men in rural and urban sectors, through the generation and application of ideas to development processes in which the producers and companies are the focus of national/Central American development with social equality and environmental sustainability.
web www.nitlapan.org.ni

Centro de Implementación de Políticas Públicas para la Equidad y el Crecimiento (CIPPEC), Argentina

CIPPEC is an independent, not-for-profit organisation that works for a fair, democratic and efficient state that will improve the lives of the people living in it. To this end, the organisation concentrates its efforts on analysing and promoting public policies that encourage equality and growth in Argentina. Its challenge is to translate into concrete actions the best ideas that emerge in the areas of Social Development, Economic Development and Strengthening of Institutions, through Education programmes, Health, Fiscal Policy, Justice, Transparency, Political Institutions, Local Public Management and Civil Society Influence.
web www.cippec.org

Why are we called COPLA?
The Programa de Comercio y Pobreza en Latino América (COPLA) is designed as an integrated approach, combining four main pillars: knowledge management, evidence generation, communications and capacity building. It places equal emphasis on deriving lessons of process and content for the programme’s partners and for third parties in the region.

A ‘copla’ is the poetic verse that is used in Latin American popular music lyrics. The language of a ‘copla’ is colloquial and direct –directed to the ‘pueblo’. In a similar way, we want to make the knowledge produced by this programme more accessible, more popular (not populist) and easier to use. We want to get policymakers, CSOs, grassroots and other actors to sing along. But ‘copla’ also means union or bond (from the Latin copula) and that is precisely what the design of the programme aims to strengthen.

Hasta que el pueblo las canta,
las coplas, coplas no son,
y cuando las canta el pueblo
ya nadie sabe el autor – Manuel Machado

Aunque soy joven ya sé
que el que no quiera escuchar
jamás silbará una copla – Litto Nebbia