Jeffrey Puryear, Vice President for Social Policy at the Inter-American Dialogue, and Laura Moodey, Director for Education Policy at Fundacion IDEA, emphasize the link between accountability and improving the region’s education quality. Accountability hinges on promoting standards, information, consequences, and authority.

As the U.S. population ages and birth rates decline, immigrant labor will be one of the few sources for future labor growth, writes AS/COA Director of Policy, Jason Marczak. Across the Atlantic, foreign-born labor is also an important economic resource but integration policies stifle newcomers’ ability to contribute economically.

Canadian Minister of International Trade David Emerson emphasizes that strategic interests reach well beyond North America. His country is committed to helping its hemispheric partners create opportunities and reduce poverty through greater economic cooperation.

Alberto Saracho Martinez, executive director of Fundación IDEA, uses the new Institutional Quality Index to show that economic growth and citizen well-being hinge on respect for basic freedoms. IDEA is one of 18 Latin American think tanks that came together to develop and recently launch the index.

Michael Bomba, a PhD from the University of Texas at Austin, sees the estimated $5.2 billion canal improvement project as a natural response to significant developments in maritime trade over the past two decades. A third set of locks will allow for increased ship traffic along this strategic waterway.

John Sheehan, a senior strategic analyst at the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory, analyzes the long-term limits of greater biofuel use. Alternative energy topped the agenda at recent meetings between U.S. President Bush and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.