Martin Burt

Martin Burt is a Paraguayan social entrepreneur, author, former mayor of Asunción and former chief of staff to Paraguay's president, known for founding Fundación Paraguaya in 1985, a leading non-profit and micro-finance organization in Paraguay, and creator of the Poverty Stoplight, a poverty measurement tool and coaching methodology.

Martin Burt
Born (1957-05-21) May 21, 1957
Asunción, Paraguay
NationalityParaguayan
Alma materUniversity of the Pacific
Occupation(s)CEO, Social Entrepreneur, Mayor
Years active1983 - Present
OrganizationFundación Paraguaya
Known forFounder and CEO of Fundación Paraguaya, Mayor of Asuncion, Paraguay

Early life and education

Burt was born in Asuncion, Paraguay, on May 21, 1957, to Daniel Gordon Burt and Deidamia Artaza.[1] For his primary education, Burt attended the American School of Asunción and for his high school education attended Colegio Cristo Rey, before spending a year in compulsory military service as a corporal of the military police. Burt was determined to eliminate poverty in Paraguay from an early age, influenced by his father and grandmother who taught him that those more fortunate were morally obligated to give back to society by helping those less fortunate.[2]

In 1980, Burt received his Bachelor of Arts degree in public administration and inter-American studies from the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California, where he served as student body president.[3] He then attended George Washington University for a Master's Degree in Science, Technology and Public Policy.[4] He later received a PhD in 2016 from Tulane University in Development Economics and International Development.[5]

Career

Burt has a long career in public service, non-profit work, and academia, including serving as Mayor of Asuncion and founding Fundación Paraguaya.

Fundación Paraguaya

Burt founded Fundación Paraguaya in 1985, while Paraguay was still under the authoritarian rule of General Alfredo Stroessner. Fundación Paraguaya has developed several programs designed to solve poverty through entrepreneurship. They pioneered micro-finance in Paraguay, helping small businesses below the scope of traditional banks. In 1995, Fundación Paraguaya established their implementation of the Junior Achievement Program in Paraguay, which focuses on teaching concepts of entrepreneurship and financial literacy. The foundation was granted the San Francisco Agricultural School in Cerrito by De La Salle Brothers, a Roman Catholic congregation in 2003, turning it into a self-sustaining agricultural high school that serves rural poor youth.[6] The foundation has since worked to replicate their model in 50 schools worldwide. In 2006, Burt co-founded Teach a Man to Fish, a UK charity based in London, England with Nik Kafka, a former intern with the foundation, in order to spread the student-led school business model. Fundación Paraguaya has been the recipient of several high-profile awards and acknowledgements, including awards from the Skoll Foundation, The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, and the Inter-American Development Bank.[7][8]

Poverty Stoplight

Burt has built a platform based on his Poverty Stoplight model of the same name, produced as a project of Fundación Paraguaya. The platform has been adopted by the Paraguayan government and Burt is working with organizations in Mexico, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda to bring the stoplight model to their local efforts.[9] The Poverty Stoplight takes a multi-dimensional approach to poverty, allowing families to self-assess their situation through 50 different indicators on 6 different dimensions. These indicators, such as access to clean water or clothing, are rated at three levels, green, yellow, and red, allowing an easy to read scorecard to be developed. This helps both the family and supporting organizations to develop a plan to meet their needs and help them out of poverty, as well as giving organizations a map to assess programs and needs at a community level.[10][11][12]

Public service

Burt served as chief of staff, Cabinet Secretary and close adviser to President Federico Franco from 2012 to 2013, where he helped lead the government's adoption of the Social Progress Index, an alternative economic indicator to the Gross Domestic Product.[13] Burt was twice elected as the president of the Paraguayan-American Chamber of Commerce.[14] He also served as Vice Secretary of Commerce from 1991 to 1993.[15] He cofounded Pro-Paraguay, Paraguay's Export and Foreign Investment agency, in 1992.[16]

Mayor of Asuncion

On December 17, 1996, Burt began his five-year term as mayor of Asunción, Paraguay's capital and largest city. He came into office leading a political alliance of his party, the Authentic Radical Liberal Party, and the National Encounter Party. As mayor, Burt's new policies for the city, including the first deployment of municipal bonds, and securing loans from the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank. He used these funds for a number of infrastructure projects, such as acquiring property for the city to build 80 public parks, developing pedestrian shelters, and recovering and developing a number of public spaces. In concert with the Salesian Works and Ministry of Social Action, he helped build collective housing for families displaced from the Chaco. His administration also restored and expanded a number of public arteries, constructed docks for public transport, renewed city automotive fleets, restored historical houses and sites, installed internet into classrooms in popular neighborhoods, and built urban walking trails, among other contributions to the public.[17]

Academia

Burt is currently a distinguished visiting professor at the University of California, Irvine and a social entrepreneur in Residence at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He has also held a number of other academic positions, including adjunct professor at the Universidad Católica de Asunción from 1983 to 1984, visiting professor of social entrepreneurship at the University of the Pacific from 2006 to 2007, as well as professor of entrepreneurship and management at the American University of Nigeria from 2011 to 2017, and adjunct assistant professor at Tulane University.[18][19][20]

Other non-profit work

Burt was co-founder of two of Paraguay's leading environmental non-profits. In 1988 he co-founded the Moises Bertoni Foundation, an environmental NGO that focuses on preserving biodiversity and sustainable development. He also co-founded the Mbaracayú Biosphere Reserve Foundation, which established a permanently protected biosphere in the Mbaracayú subtropical rainforest located in the northeastern region of Paraguay near the Brazilian border. The Mbaracayú Reserve is managed by the Moises Bertoni Foundation.[21] This area of 65,000 hectares is home to Paraguayan and Brazilian cattle ranchers and small holdings, two indigenous groups, and a wide variety of species and ecosystems.[22]

Fundación Paraguaya and Fundación Moisés Bertoni collaborated to replicate the model of the San Francisco Agricultural School in the Mbaracayú Forest Reserve in the form of the all-girls Centro Educativo Mbaracayú school. The school was founded in 2009 with the aim of serving primarily the Ache and other native American communities in the area. The school was the focus of the 2016 documentary Daughters of the Forest by documentary filmmakers Samantha Grant and Carl Byker. Filmed over a course of five years, the film follows the lives of the school's first class through their matriculation. The film has been widely featured internationally since its release.[23][24]

Burt also co-founded Lican Paraguay SA, a social enterprise that processes formerly contaminating animal blood from slaughterhouses and converts it into hemoglobin and plasma, profits going to save the Mbaracayú Forest Reserve.[25][26]

Burt has been involved in a number of other organizations as a co-founder, such as the Asociación Paraguaya de la Calidad, Paraguay Educa, Club Universitario de Rugby de Asunción, and Sistema B Paraguay.[27]

Martin serves on the board of directors of the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship,[28] and is also a member of the board of the Global Foodbanking Network.[29] He has served as advisor to the WARC Group Sierra Leone since 2017.[30]

Personal life

During his time in Stockton, Burt met his future wife Dorothy Wolf, who he married in 1982.[31] They have four children and live in Asunción, Paraguay.[32] Burt is also the nephew of well-known Paraguayan artist Michael Burt.[33]

Honors, decorations, awards and distinctions

Burt has been widely recognized for his work as a social entrepreneur. In 2020, Burt was awarded the Wave Maker Award from HCL Technologies.[34] He received a Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship in 2005, and won the 2004 Outstanding Social Entrepreneur Award from the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship. He was awarded the Microfinance Award for Excellence in Social Responsibility from the Inter-American Development Bank, the Eisenhower Fellowship Award from the US and Taiwan, the UNESCO Orbis Guaraniticus Medal, and the Argentina National Academy of History Domingo Sarmiento Medal.[35] He has also won awards from the Avina Foundation, Synergos, World Innovation Summit for Education, and Nestlé.[36] He was awarded the Albert Bandura Influencer Award in 2014, the 2011 Opportunity Collaboration Achievement Award, the Social Innovator of the Year Award from the Ballard Center for Self-Reliance of Brigham Young University in 2007, the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the George Washington University in 2007, and the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of the Pacific in 2006.[37][38][39][40][41]

Publications, talks and interviews

In September 2019, Burt released his most recent book, Who Owns Poverty? In this book, he tells the story of his quest to understand poverty and how the Poverty Stoplight came to being.[42]

In 2016, Burt co-wrote The Poverty Stoplight and its Psychological and Multidimensional Approach with Luis Fernando Sanabira, in Psychological Implications of Poverty (English version published in 2019).[43] In 2013, he wrote a paper on the Poverty Stoplight, published by MIT Journals.[44]

In 1984 Burt co-wrote Paraguay: Laws and Economy with Guillermo F. Peroni.[45]

Burt regularly attends the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, as well as the World Economic Meeting on Latin America and the Economic Forum Annual Meeting of the New Champions held in the People’s Republic of China.[46][47]

Martin has been a speaker at the Aspen Ideas Festival, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, UNIAPAC, CAF – Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean, World Islamic Economic Forum (WIEF), Synergos, Eisenhower Fellowships, ICERI 2014, and Development, as well as at TEDxPuraVida and TEDxBYU.[48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59]

He was also invited as a speaker to a National Consultation on Building Cognitive Capital for Children organized jointly by UNICEF China and the Government of the People’s Republic of China in 2017.[60] He presented the Poverty Stoplight methodology at the 2017 Istanbul Innovation Days Conference organized by UNDP Turkey and Nesta.[61] He made a presentation on Fundación Paraguaya’s work on poverty elimination to the European Platform against Poverty and Social Exclusion in 2014.[62]

At the end of 2019, Burt presented the Draft Bill Establishing Guidelines for Poverty Elimination in Paraguay, at a public hearing organized by the National Congress. The Draft Bill, based on the Poverty Stoplight methodology, is currently being studied by the Chamber of Senators.[63]

Further reading

References
  1. Veron, Luis. "La ciudad de Asuncion y sus Intendentes". Portal Guarani. Retrieved 5 March 2020.
  2. Godfrey, Paul (2013). More than Money: Five Forms of Capital to Create Wealth and Eliminate Poverty. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. pp. 86–87. ISBN 978-0-8047-8279-1.
  3. "2018-2019 Pacific Alumni Association" (PDF). Pacific Alumni Association. University of the Pacific, California. Retrieved 10 April 2020.
  4. "Martin Burt". Global Philanthropy Forum. Retrieved 30 March 2020.
  5. "Martin Burt Poverty Stoplight Dissertation 8 April 2016". Tulane University Digital Library. Howard-Tilton Memorial Library. Retrieved 29 June 2020.
  6. Godfrey, Paul (2013). More than Money. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. pp. 86–93. ISBN 978-0-8047-8279-1.
  7. "Martin Burt". Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship. World Economic Foundation. Retrieved 9 April 2020.
  8. "Paraguay's Self-Sustaining Agricultural School Model Goes Global". Food Tank. Food Tank. April 2018. Retrieved 9 April 2020.
  9. Coriza, J. "The Poverty Stoplight: Putting poverty on the map". Accion. Retrieved 29 June 2020.
  10. Zaugg, Andrew (10 December 2018). "On-campus internship helps nonprofit address poverty". Brigham Young University. The Daily Universe. Retrieved 9 April 2020.
  11. Ashbach, Heather; Orlowski, Aaron (19 March 2018). "Breaking down poverty". Strategic Communications & Public Affairs. UCI News. Retrieved 9 April 2020.
  12. "Activate the potential of families". Poverty Stoplight. Fundación Paraguaya. Retrieved 10 April 2020.
  13. Burt, Martin (2 September 2014). "Move over GDP, the SPI is the way to measure progress". The Christian Science Monitor. The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 30 March 2020.
  14. "Martin Burt". Global Philanthropy Forum. Retrieved 30 March 2020.
  15. Nickson, R. Andrew (June 17, 2015). Historical Dictionary of Paraguay (Third ed.). Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. p. 102. ISBN 978-0-8108-7964-5. Retrieved 11 March 2020.
  16. Nickson, R. Andrew (2015). Historical dictionary of Paraguay (Third ed.). Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield. p. 102. ISBN 978-0-8108-7964-5. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
  17. Veron, Luis (2011). La ciudad de Asunción y sus Intendentes. Asuncion: El Lector. p. 61. ISBN 978-99953-1-154-4. Retrieved 11 March 2020.
  18. "Martin Burt". Synergos. Retrieved 11 March 2020.
  19. "Ciudadanía: La gestión del intendente Martín Burt en la Municipalidad de Asunción 1996-2001". Municipalidad de Asunción. Retrieved 29 June 2020.
  20. Quinn-Szcesuil, Julia. "Martin Burt, Social Entrepreneur in Residence, Returns". Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Retrieved 29 June 2020.
  21. "Eisenhower Fellowships Directory". Eisenhower Fellowships. Retrieved 23 March 2020.
  22. "Mbaracayú Forest Nature Reserve". United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. UNESCO World Heritage. Retrieved 24 March 2020.
  23. Hill, Toby Stirling (24 October 2016). "Generation of hope: the girls challenging misogyny in the heart of rural Paraguay". The Guardian. Guardian News & Media Limited. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  24. Narang, Sonia (June 22, 2016). "The Forest School Transforming Lives in Paraguay". News Deeply. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  25. "Lican Paraguay SA (Asuncion, Paraguay)". Biblioteca Ciudades Sostenibles para un futuro mas sostenible. Universidad Politecnica de Madrid. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
  26. "Lican Paraguay". Fundacion Moises Bertoni. Retrieved 29 June 2020.
  27. "Martin Burt". Red Press. Retrieved 31 March 2020.
  28. "People Behind the Foundation". Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship. World Economic Forum. Retrieved 24 March 2020.
  29. "Our People". The Global Foodbanking Network. Retrieved 24 March 2020.
  30. "Our People". Warc Group. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  31. "WPI's Social Entrepreneur in Residence Wins Prestigious UN Recognition". Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Retrieved 24 March 2020.
  32. "Speakers". Education that Pays for Itself. Teach a Man to Fish. Retrieved 24 March 2020.
  33. "Michael Burt's life." American School of Asunción. Retrieved 24 March 2020.
  34. "HCL Technologies Honors Global Goodwill Champions at the 2020 World Economic Forum in Davos". Financial Post. Financial Post. January 24, 2020. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  35. "Martin Burt". Synergos. Retrieved 31 March 2020.
  36. "Martin Burt". World Economic Forum. Retrieved 31 March 2020.
  37. "Albert Bandura Influencer Award Recipients". Influencer Institute. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  38. Lewis, Jonathan C. (February 14, 2011). "Paraguayan Tagged for 2011 Achievement Award for Combating Poverty". Verizon Media. Huffpost. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  39. "Social Innovator of the Year". Ballard Center. Brigham Young University. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  40. "GW President Steven Knapp and the GW Alumni Association announce recipients of the 71st Annual Distinguished Alumni Achievement Awards and First Annual Recent Alumni Achievement Award". GW News Center. The George Washington University Office of University Relations. Archived from the original on 25 December 2018. Retrieved 30 June 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  41. "Alumni of Distinction". University of the Pacific. University of the Pacific, California. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  42. ""Who Owns Poverty?" Book Launch". The Center on Capitalism and Society. Columbia University. September 25, 2019. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  43. Morais Ximenes, V.; Ferreira Moura Jr., J.; Camurça Cidade, E.; Barbosa Nemopuceno, B., eds. (2019). Psychosocial implications of poverty : diversities and resistances. Switzerland: Springer Nature. ISBN 978-3-030-24291-6. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  44. "The 'Poverty Stoplight' Approach to Eliminating Multidimensional Poverty: Business, Civil Society, and Government Working Together in Paraguay."". The MIT Press. doi:10.1162/INOV_a_00165. S2CID 57559813. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  45. Hanratty, Dennis M.; Meditz, Sandra W. (1988). "Paraguay A Country Study" (PDF). Library of Congress. The Library of Congress. Retrieved 24 March 2020.
  46. "Social entrepreneurs meet at World Economic Forum in Davos". Deutsche Welle. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  47. "Thinking ahead influencing change". World Economic Forum. September 10, 2015. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  48. "Martin Burt". Aspen Ideas Festival. The Aspen Institute. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
  49. "TEDxPuraVida". TED. TED Conferences, LLC. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
  50. "TEDxBYU - Martin Burt - Unexpected Social Innovations". YouTube. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
  51. "Speakers". 9th Non-Profit Sector Development Forum – Social Investment and Its Impact Towards 2030 Vision. Non Profit Sector Development Forum. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  52. "Speakers Panel 2". XXVI UNIAPAC World Congress 2018. UNIAPAC. 2018. Retrieved 12 June 2020.
  53. "Pobreza y desigualdad 'escondida'". Casamérica. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  54. "7th WIEF – ASTANA". WIEF Foundation. World Islamic Economic Forum Foundation. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  55. "University for a Night 2017". Synergos. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  56. "Positive Education Summit June 2019". Positive Psychology Center. The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  57. "Speakers". Eisenhower Fellowships Global Conference: The Future of Education. Cvent, Inc. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
  58. "ICERI2014 Proceedings". iated Digital Library. iated. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
  59. "Martin Burt: Financially Self-Sufficient Schools and the Poverty Stoplight". YouTube. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
  60. "The National Consultation on 'Building Cognitive Capital for Children' for Sustainable Development" (PDF). UNICEF. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
  61. "Istanbul Innovation Days". UNDP. United Nations Development Programme. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
  62. "BRUSSELS - 4th Annual Convention of the European Platform against Poverty and Social Exclusion (20-21 November 2014)". Centre for the Study of European Labour Law. University of Catania. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
  63. "Fundación Paraguaya introduced the Poverty Stoplight Law to the National Congress". Fundación Paraguaya. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
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