Patricio Barriga passed away June 26, 2019
Obituary

Patricio Barriga is currently a policy advisor to the Presidency of Ecuador. In January 2017, he was also in Honduras running an ethnographic research workshop for graduate students (right) at the School of Medicine in Tegucigalpa. 

He wrote to CIE in 2016:

I was Chief of Party for CIE's nonformal education project in Ecuador from 1971-1976. This was the beginning of my interest in nonformal education as a tool for social change in Latin America. Since then, I have worked for AED and the UN, with their education and health programs which took me to Colombia, Honduras, Guatemala and other countries in this region.

In 2010, I returned to my home country to work for an environmental NGO in the Galapagos Islands. My work was focused on the implementation of 3 European Union projects: adapting to climate change, restoring Galapagos biodiversity, and solid waste management in Isabela Island. As an advisor and CEO, later, I was also able to apply several strategies to change the behavioral patterns in this community.

After 4 years living in paradise and leaving behind my bike rides, I traveled to the mainland to work at the Ministry of Buen Vivir (wellbeing). This ministry was created by Presidente Rafael Correa in order to foster the Sumak Kawsay (Buen Vivir) as an answer to social inequality and an antidote to our planet’s destructive trends. As an advisor, I have been part of a team that works towards developing public policies that will ensure the citizen’s Buen Vivir. [2/16]

Patricio is pictured (top left) with his granddaughter.