How business can drive solutions to social problems | Carlos Rodríguez-Pastor
Jan 8, 2024
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Carlos Rodríguez-Pastor, founder of Intercorp, discusses the immense possibilities of private-public partnerships and the importance of individual action in driving social change. Topics include challenges in Peru's education system, creating affordable and academically excellent schools, the meaning of 'C Pédo', and the power of partnerships for driving sustainable change.
Creating affordable and academically excellent schools can drive positive change in the education system.
Private-public partnerships can bridge the gap in healthcare services and improve outcomes in underserved communities.
Deep dives
Improving Education in Peru
Carlos Rodriguez Pastore discusses the challenges faced by the education system in Peru. Despite economic growth, public schools had low-quality education, low attendance, and poor engagement. Private schools were no better, driven by profit rather than genuine commitment to education. Carlos and his team developed an affordable and academically excellent system targeting the emerging middle class, with the goal of creating positive change in Peru's education system.
Access to Quality Healthcare
Carlos highlights the broken healthcare system in Peru, where even universal healthcare fails to provide good quality services. To address this, Carlos and his team partnered with IDO and others to develop solutions for the emerging middle class. They created a chain of pharmacies and clinics that offer accessible and high-quality healthcare to a wider population, aiming to improve healthcare outcomes and bridge the gap left by the government.
Infrastructure and Public-Private Partnerships
Carlos discusses the challenges faced in improving infrastructure in Peru. To overcome bureaucratic hurdles, Carlos engaged in a public-private partnership to build a bridge that had been stuck in planning for over 50 years. By leveraging taxes to invest in community projects, Carlos and his partners successfully completed the bridge on time and on budget. This exemplifies how private sector involvement can drive change and improve infrastructure in the country.
Driven by the belief that businesses can — and should — invest in the communities around them, Intercorp founder and philanthropist Carlos Rodríguez-Pastor has built schools, pharmacies and a literal bridge to better serve Peru's growing middle class. In conversation with TED business curator Corey Hajim, he explores the immense possibility behind private-public partnerships — and his conviction that any individual can step up to create change. After the interview, Modupe talks about how to build meaningful partnerships to make real social change.