Cuba Study Group

(Reuters) - For the first time since they were nationalized in the 1960s, Cuba has opened the door to private management of some state-run cafes and food service outlets, often scorned for bad service and poor food. Read More

(Reuters) - Hundreds of handwritten signs stuck on doorways and in windows announce "se vende" or "for sale" in provincial cities and towns across Cuba as the island's nascent housing market begins to bloom. Read More

It has been nearly four years since Cuban leader Rául Castro announced plans for a series of reforms to raise Cubans’ living standards and tie personal gain to individual work and initiative. Change came at a glacial rate for the first few years. Read More

HAVANA (AP) — The Roman Catholic Church in Cuba has announced the dates and a partial itinerary for Pope Benedict XVI's much-anticipated visit to the island, the first by a pontiff since John Paul II's groundbreaking 1998 tour. Read More

(Reuters) - Roman Catholic Church leaders called for reconciliation among Cubans and urged further economic reform at an outdoor mass in Cuba on Friday marking the end of a national pilgrimage of a statue of the island's patron saint. Read More

HAVANA, Dec. 29 (UPI) -- As seismic shifts go, Cuba's embrace of a socialist-coated market economy is going ahead in full stream as if it was the most natural thing for its authoritarian government to do in between Communist Party conferences and populist pep talkathons. Read More

The goal of the Cuba Small Business Initiative is to identify ways to empower Cubans on the island with the resources and information to start and operate small businesses in Cuba.

Objective 1: To identify resources, technology and information that could be employed today to empower Cuban entrepreneurs on the island... Read More

The power of Internet technology and social media to fuel economic growth, enhance communication and expand educational opportunities is, without doubt, one of the legacies of the last quarter century. However, while Internet technology and social media have helped increase communication and grow the economies of developed nations and some emerging nations, others have fallen behind and into an ever-expanding technology gap. If access to basic healthcare and education were the determining factors for development in the past, access to technology may very well be the determining factor for this generation. Read More

The Cuban Enterprise Fund is modeled after the successful enterprise funds created by the Support for Eastern European Democracy Act of 1989, following the fall of the Berlin wall. Its purpose, like that of previous funds, is to assist in the development of private enterprise by providing equity investments, loans, technical assistance, training, and other forms of assistance to truly independent businesses within host nations. Read More

This Cuba Study Group sponsored project is aimed towards assisting Cubans on the island by providing them with the know-how, the resources and the conditions to setup and operate their own small businesses as soon as Cuban law permits. Read More

In April of 2005, the Cuba Study Group joined over 20 other organizations in a project aimed at uniting the Cuban diaspora along a series of basic principles. The result of this effort is Consenso Cubano, a plural gathering space for refection, conciliation and concord among Cuban organizations. The Pilares para un Consenco Cubano, a series of fundamental areas of agreement among member organizations, constitutes the foundation and framework of reference for Consenso Cubano. The Cuba Study Group is a founding member of Conseso Cubano. Read More

In April of 2005, the Cuba Study Group joined over 30 organizations from 7 different countries at the first Annual Conference of the International Group for Social Corporate Responsibility in Madrid, Spain. At that conference the 35 organizations that were represented, including independent labor unions and non-profit organizations from around the world, unanimously approved a resolution condemning the Cuban regime's systematic violation of internationally recognized labor standards and agreed to form the International Group for Social Corporate Responsibility in Cuba. Read More

A whitepaper prepared by the Cuba Study Group in collaboration with Americas Society/Council of the Americas and the Center for Financial Inclusion at ACCION International which was released in April of 2011."

A whitepaper released by the Cuba Study Group in collaboration with the Latin America Initiative at the Brookings Institution and the Americas Society/Council of the Americas in July 2010. The report summarizes the conclusions of the Cuba IT and Social Media Initiative, a pr...

A December 2008 white paper release by the Cuba Study Group advocating for the unilateral lifting of all restrictions on travel and remittances to Cuba by U.S. nationals. ...

A Cuba Study Group proposal for the creation of a Cuban Enterprise Fund to assist in the development of private small and medium size businesses in Cuba through equity investments, loans, technical assistance, training, and other forms of assistance. ...

The Cuba Study Group's September 2006 White Paper outlining its initiative to unleash micro-economic reforms in Cuba and offer million in micro-credits to entrepreneurs in Cuba. ...

In this Dec. 15, 2011 issue, Lenier Gonzalez Mederos, editor of Espacio Laical analyzes the role of independent media in Cuba.

Roberto Veiga Gonzalez, editor of the Catholic publication Espacio Laical, reflects on the role of the Catholic Church in Cuba and its role in helping shape Cuba's future ...

Co-founder of Convivencia Cuba, Virgilio Toledo Lopez, analyses the announced updating or readjustment of Cuba's migration laws ...

University of Havana Professor and Economist Omar Everleny Perez Villanueva examines the updating of Cuba's economic model ...

Independent journalist Miriam Leiva discusses the prospects for renewed relations between the United States and Cuba given the processes of reform underway in the island...

In this issue, economist and independent journalist Oscar Espinosa Chepe (Havana) examines the scope and limitations of the project of reforms approved by the Communist Party of Cuba...