CLACSO is an international non-governmental institution, created in 1967, with associative status at UNESCO. Currently, it brings together 938 research and postgraduate centers in the field of social sciences and humanities in 56 countries in Latin America and other continents.
CLACSO articulates and promotes multi-stakeholder exchanges between the academic community, civil society organisations and public policies makers through its Platforms for Social Dialogue (PSD) .The PSD aim to co-produce knowledge, build capacities that recognise the power of social activism and influence public policies in order to transform the realities of vulnerable communities and territories in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The PSD have 8 strategic axis: 1) Rights, violence and gender equality 2) Social movements and activism in Latin America and the Caribbean 3) Inequalities and poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean 4) Democracy, human rights, and peace 5) Environment, climate change and social development 6) Migrations and human mobility 7) Reconfigurations of work in todays world 8) The right to education, public policies and pedagogical alternatives.

Each PSD has different componets:

– Management and production of scientific knowledge through research networks.

– Generation of specific and strategic knowledge through lines of support for individual and team research projects.

– Training of target populations to influence the training of social leaders and the development of public policies.

– Communication through dissemination campaigns specially designed to influence public opinion.

– Publication of results generated by the PDS through written formats in open access.

In addition, CLACSO’s Latin American Forum on Scientific Evaluation (FOLEC-CLACSO) is a space for proposals and debates on the meanings, policies, and practices of scientific evaluation processes in the region based on the principles of open and public science and knowledge as a human right and common good.