At the VII Summit of the Americas held in Panama in April 2015, member states of the Organization of American States (OAS) signed a motion to create a research and innovation laboratory in education that would promote greater and better use of rigorous evidence in public policy decisions in education. Subsequently, based on the commitment and concrete support of seven countries in the region and the strategic alliance between the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and Fundación Chile, SUMMA began its activities in October 2016 in Santiago, Chile, officially Inaugurated in November of that year in Washington DC, in the offices of IDB.
To accomplish its mission, Summa organizes its actions in three strategic pillars that allow the promotion, development and spread of: (1) cutting-edge research aimed at diagnosing the main challenges in the region and promoting shared work agendas; (2) innovation in education policies and practices aimed at providing solutions for the main education problems in the region; (3) collaborative spaces that allow the exchange between policy makers, researchers, innovators and the school community, based on a consensual regional agenda.
SUMMA will be presented in the 7 member countries. On March 31, 2017, it was launched in Santiago de Chile, while on May 8, in Uruguay. SUMMA will be launched soon in Ecuador (Friday, July 28).
