Leonel Fernández reaffirms that knowledge is the foundation for the country’s future.
Santo Domingo.– The president of GFDD, Leonel Fernández, reaffirmed that knowledge is the fundamental basis for transforming the country’s future, during the launch of the activity program for the 25th anniversary of the Global Foundation for Democracy and Development (GFDD).
“There is a huge number of activities, projects, initiatives, and connections, there is an international network in which we are working, and I believe its purpose is, through knowledge, to transform the Dominican Republic and contribute to the formation of a new generation of young people in this country,” Fernández stated before media executives at the institution’s headquarters.
To honor this quarter-century of trajectory, GFDD has designed a comprehensive program of activities throughout 2025. Among the most notable events are the Santo Domingo Film Festival, the photographic exhibition “25 Years of History,” as well as academic and cultural gatherings organized by the institution’s various study centers and initiatives.
Over the past 25 years, GFDD has strengthened its role as a global think tank and a leader in research applied to development. Some of its most important achievements include:
- Over 1,800 academic and cultural events held, including 763 conferences, 332 discussion panels, and 355 seminars.
- Notable intellectual production: Through GFDD Publishing, 176 books with 39 reprints, 76 notebooks with 20 reprints, and Global Magazine, which is now distributed in Spain and other countries.
- GFDD Awards, with 3,927 competing works and 208 prizes awarded.
- The Juan Bosch Library, housing approximately 489,000 books and a newspaper archive with over 906 titles.
- Digital expansion and international partnerships, highlighting strategic agreements with Radio France Internationale (RFI) and Global TV Channel 80.
Additionally, GFDD has significantly strengthened its digital presence, highlighting GFDD Radio, which reached over 12 million impressions on YouTube last year, with significant growth on social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook. Likewise, GFDD’s digital community now exceeds 40,000 people worldwide, particularly in the Dominican Republic, the United States, Spain, and other Latin American countries.
“Twenty-five years have passed, and I hope to invite you again in another 25 years so we can reflect on how young we were in 2016,” Fernández stated.
