Sometimes, the future arrives quietly. An email. A signature. A new beginning. We are delighted to share that our fellow Francisco Sagasti – former President of Peru, thinker, builder, bridge between worlds – has been appointed Chairholder of the UNESCO Chair on Knowledge and Innovation for Social Transformations at Universidad del Pacífico.

It is, in some ways, a logical next step. For decades, Sagasti has been asking the questions that matter: How do we create knowledge that changes lives? How do we turn innovation into transformation, not just for the few, but for the many?

Now, under the auspices of UNESCO, these questions become a mandate, a mission, a call to action.

The Chair, which is part of UNESCO's global UNITWIN network, exists at the intersection of urgency and possibility. It is about ideas, yes, but also about action. It is about connecting the local and the global, the theoretical and the practical, and the past and the future. This is the work that we carry out at THE NEW INSTITUTE every day, navigating the spaces between disciplines and across borders.

Francisco Sagasti is, as far as we know, the only former head of state to hold such a position. But it is not about titles. It is about what comes next. The Chair is an invitation – to collaborate, to imagine, to build. To think together about the world as it could be.

Congratulations, Francisco! We look forward to the work ahead.