Guanajuato, Gto., October 7, 2016. The University of Guanajuato (UG) was the stage to sign the agreement to Formalize the Academic Observatory of Social and Human Development of the State of Guanajuato, organ that will make an analytical and critic review of the social programs, to influence in the generation of public policies that contribute to improve the life quality of the citizens.

The Observatory is integrated by sex universities: University of Guanajuato, Instituto Politécnico Nacional (IPN) Interdisciplinary Professional Unit of Engineering Campus Guanajuato; the National School of Higher Studies (ENES) Leon from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), the Universidad Iberoamericana Leon, the Universidad De La Salle Bajío and the Instituto Tecnológico de Monterrey Campus León.

At the ceremony, UG's General Rector, Dr. Luis Felipe Guerrero Agripino, said that this initiative is sustained in the co-responsibility, since the grand problems of the state –and the country—provoke to work with ethic, responsibility and commitment, which is what the society claims from their institutions, he asserted.

Dr. Guerrero highlighted the opportunity that the university communities make contributions from an analytical, critic and purposeful point of view of human and social development, and dialogue to influence in generating more efficient public policies.

The State Governor, Lic. Miguel Márquez Márquez, who participated in the signing of the agreement as witness of honor, thanked the representatives of the six universities for the availability to work as a team, with great coordination and –highlighted—with total independence.

He explained that the purpose of the agreement is to academically sustain the Program of Social Encouragement, the greatest transversal policy in matter of social and human development, whose responsible is the state.

On the issue, the head of the Department of Human and Social Development (SEDESHU), Lic. Diego Sinhué Rodríguez Vallejo, reminded that the Academic Observatory emerged from the necessity to have instruments that allow to design and apply public policies that contribute to diminish the inequality gap.

The Observatory will document and will evaluate the Program Social Encouragement to adjust what is needed, with the support and work from these six institutions, they pretend to guarantee the continuity of the social programs that give better results.

In his message, the Rector of the National School of Higher Studies (ENES) Unit León of UNAM, M. A. Javier de la Fuente Hernández, emphasized that the academic cannot only be inquisitors of the public policies, we have to go beyond the classrooms. Hence, he considered that it is time for the universities and the government to work together.