Robert Krueger, professor and head of WPI's Department of Social Science and Policy Studies, recently co-authored an article published in the Stanford Social Innovation Review en Español.
Krueger’s co-authors are Martín Burt, creator of the Poverty Stoplight platform and executive director of Fundación Paraguaya, and Julia Corvalán, global operations manager for Poverty Stoplight and a senior fellow at the Aspen Institute.
The article examines the right of Latin American communities to control, protect, interpret, and manage the information collected about them. The authors argue that the abrupt closure of USAID in spring 2025 and the broader contraction of international cooperation have renewed longstanding debates about dependency, local authority, and the role of outside organizations in setting development priorities. These changes also call into question development models built around centralized expertise, control of knowledge, and top-down financing far removed from the communities they are intended to serve.
In response, the authors propose knowledge sovereignty as an alternative starting point for development. Knowledge sovereignty means more than protecting personal data. It recognizes the right of communities to decide how information about their lives is collected, interpreted, shared, and used. When communities retain authority over the knowledge that describes their conditions and priorities, they can move from being subjects of development programs to taking a leading role in shaping their own futures.
