About the Center
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The International Celso Furtado Center for Development Policies was a proposal put forward by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva at the opening session of UNCTAD XI – the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, held in São Paulo on June 14th 2004. The idea of Brazil having an institution that brings together intellectuals committed to development and the present day thinking of Professor Celso Furtado gained the immediate backing of researchers and social scientists around the world.
In his reply to President Lula, Celso Furtado pointed out that Brazil is one of the world’s most endowed nations in terms of development potential, a fact, which therefore, assigns it a leading role in the fight against underdevelopment. Celso Furtado dedicated the utmost of his intellectual creativeness and performance as a public figure to this fight, both in Brazil and abroad. The Celso Furtado Center is committed to preserving his vast legacy and adapting it to the realities that are being delineated at the beginning of this new century and this is the best tribute we can make to this personality — a synthesis of the efforts of a nation to guide its own destiny.
On September 8th, 2005, the Celso Furtado Center project was presented to the delegates at the Helsinki Conference. The manifesto published at that time was the founding text, which, in sixteen points, sets down and summarizes the principles and the objectives of the Center. At the end of the Helsinki Conference, Finland’s Foreign Relations Minister proposed cooperation on a permanent basis to the commission organizing the future Celso Furtado Center, whose regular meetings have, since then discussed specific issues of interest to the Helsinki Process and the Center itself. |
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