Michigan State University's Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies is bringing together international leaders for a two-day symposium to examine issues of inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean, which has far-reaching impacts on health, education, food, environment and the global economy.

The symposium, Regional Inequality in Times of Globalization, will be April 21-22 at MSU's International Center. It is a meeting of researchers and international development professionals who have knowledge and experiences with the unequal distribution and access of food, education, markets, credit, health services, land and earned income in Latin and Central America.

"In the next decade, a different level of engagement, action and new partnerships is expected to help lift the region to greater economic development," said symposium keynote speaker, Alejandro Villanueva, regional director of Latin America and Caribbean programs for the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. "This symposium focuses on potential platforms for achieving this."

Think-tank discussions will focus on education, health care, social welfare and the politics of inequality.

"This year's symposium is particularly timely," said Robert Blake, director of MSU's Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. "Often overlooked, much of Latin America is on a path of democratic reformism, which can offer aspirations for communities in parallel situations in other parts of the world."

Additionally, this year's symposium will be taped and developed into a free and open access set of online educational resources. A pilot project of MSU's Center for Latin America and Caribbean Studies, Latin America Learning (www.latinamericalearning.org) is designed to create a virtual hub of material that can improve understanding and inform policy makers, educators, researchers and community leaders long after the close of the symposium.

CLACS is working with MSUglobal Learning Ventures, an entrepreneurial business unit on campus, to develop effective practices for sharing information through open education resources - an educational learning trend in which materials reside in a public domain for users to freely share and repurpose.

MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon will participate in a special welcome at the symposium, highlighting MSU's reach in international development.

Additionally, Salsa Verde, an MSU salsa band featuring College of Music faculty and students, will perform at a reception following the keynote address, which begins at 3 p.m. April 21. For more information, visit Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies