Ilona Szabó de Carvalho

Civic entrepreneur
Ilona Szabó de Carvalho designs solutions for some of the world's biggest challenges — from reducing violence and reforming drug laws to renewing democracy and fighting polarization.

Why you should listen

Ilona Szabó de Carvalho is the cofounder and executive director of the Igarapé Institute, a "think-and-do" tank based in Brazil. She also cofounded Agora, a political movement of young leaders advancing innovative, evidence-based public policy. In her work, she tackles issues like responsible firearms regulation, criminal justice and progressive drug policy. She coordinated the Global Commission on Drug Policy from 2011-2016, reaching out to presidents, business leaders and civic groups to rethink the war on drugs. 
  
In addition to her column with Folha de Sao Paulo, Szabó de Carvalho is the author of Drugs: The Untold Stories and Public Security to Change the Game. She gave her first TED Talk in 2014, and in 2015 she was nominated to be a Young Global Leader at the World Economic Forum.

Ilona Szabó de Carvalho’s TED talk

More news and ideas from Ilona Szabó de Carvalho

Live from TEDGlobal

A map of the future: A recap of session 7 of TEDGlobal 2014

October 9, 2014

The theme of this session is “Blueprints.” And so we hear from speakers who have that all-too-easy-to-overlook first step: a plan. Brazil is named for a tree, says Tasso Azevedo. And thus, it is a good place to be a forester. 12% of the world’s forests are in the country, primarily in the Amazon, which plays a vital role in […]

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