The Ford Foundation has announced a $13 million commitment to help universities in the Global South strengthen their economic research centers. 

Recipients will propose alternatives to neoliberalism—which has dominated economic and political debates with its free-market fundamentalism and growth-at-all-costs approach to economic and social policy—and develop new frameworks for how governments, markets, and individuals can better relate to meet society’s biggest challenges. The centers are housed at the American University in Cairo in Egypt, the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies at Wits University in South Africa, Universidad de los Andes in Colombia, and El Colegio de México. Additional centers will be selected in Asia.  

The grants complement a network of university centers announced earlier this year by the Hewlett Foundation and Omidyar Network. Those investments established centers at the Harvard Kennedy School, Howard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Johns Hopkins University, and Columbia University. 

“Unregulated markets have caused some of the principal societal inequities we face today. It is time for markets to serve the interests of all people,” said Ford Foundation vice president for international programs Martín Abregú. “While the free-market worldview has dominated for decades, the changing global economic context and persistent inequality require us to rethink traditional models. We are pleased to join Hewlett in this initiative to develop a bold vision for the future of global economic systems that will better serve today’s society.” 

(Photo credit: Getty Images/Drazen Zigic)