Rimisp – Latin American Center for Rural Development, and especially our office in Ecuador, deeply regrets the departure of our friend and colleague, Francisco Rhon, who was a great support to the organization, being also part of the Board of Directors and as an advisor for several years to the Rural Dialogue Group (RDG).

Among the most recent collaborations of the unforgettable Paco is his outstanding role as a member of the jury for the last edition of the Manuel Chiriboga award. Manuel Chiriboga Award, who was his personal friend.

On that occasion, he highlighted the participation of young researchers in Rimisp’s call for proposals: “There is a generational change where new thinkers and novel lines of research are beginning to emerge. It is necessary to be attentive to these changes. Some of these new topics have to do with the effects of climate change, encounters with political ecology and platforms for the defense of the rights of nature, as well as political studies and democracy, always in the line of territorial studies”.

Anthropologist with studies in philosophy and development economics. Executive Director of the Andean Center for Popular Action (CAAP); Individual Member of the Superior Council of FLACSO from 2002 to 2018. Member of the editorial boards of several publications, such as EUTOPIA, journal of the Faculty of Social Sciences of the Universidad Central; Revista Questiones Urbano Regionales and Comentario Internacional.

Served as President of the Superior Council of the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO); Director of the Journal Ecuador Debate; Editor of the Studies and Analysis Series of CAAP; Professor at the Universidad Politécnica Salesiana; Guest Professor at the Regional Master’s Degree Andean College, FLACSO-Peru; Guest Professor at the Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar. Professor at IAEN – Public University on Popular and Solidarity Economy, 2014.

He received a doctorate Honoris Causa (FLACSO) 2019; in addition to serving as Honorary Advisor of the Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar, 2020.

Carol Chehab, Director of Rimisp in Ecuador, remembers Paco Rhon as “a man of principles, who contributed with his knowledge and experience to bring to the forefront the urgent issues of rurality, proposing innovative and impactful ideas to be worked on in public-private dialogues”.