About us

We design and promote initiatives that allow Venezuela to use its own oil wealth to face the country’s must urgent issues.

Oil for Venezuela Foundation

Oil for Venezuela, Inc., is a non-profit organization, registered in the State of New York, that operates as a think-tank that develops sustainable mechanisms to address and prevent the deepening of Venezuela’s humanitarian crisis. Our work is focused on initiatives that allow for the nation to use the resources from its oil wealth to face the most urgent problems affecting Venezuelans today.

We believe in de-politicized solutions

Venezuela is living an unprecedented humanitarian crisis in the region. The possibility of facing this crisis has been severely undermined by the political conflict and its international repercussions. At the same time, traditional aid schemes become insufficient or obsolete given the complexity of Venezuela’s situation. We seek to promote solutions that overcome the political struggle and can be applied here and now.

Our leadership

Oil for Venezuela emerges under the guidance of Venezuelan economist Francisco Rodríguez. Rodríguez served as research director of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Human Development Report. He received a PhD in Economics from Harvard University in 1998 and has taught Economics in the University of Maryland, Wesleyan University and the Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Administración. He’s published over 50 articles in academic magazines and is known as one of the foremost experts in the study of the Venezuelan economy.

We believe in de-politicized solutions

Venezuela is living an unprecedented humanitarian crisis in the region. The possibility of facing this crisis has been severely undermined by the political conflict and its international repercussions. At the same time, traditional aid schemes become insufficient or obsolete given the complexity of Venezuela’s situation. We seek to promote solutions that overcome the political struggle and can be applied here and now.

Our leadership

Oil for Venezuela emerges under the guidance of Venezuelan economist Francisco Rodríguez. Rodríguez served as research director of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Human Development Report. He received a PhD in Economics from Harvard University in 1998 and has taught Economics in the University of Maryland, Wesleyan University and the Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Administración. He’s published over 50 articles in academic magazines and is known as one of the foremost experts in the study of the Venezuelan economy.

Creemos en soluciones despolitizadas

Venezuela vive una crisis humanitaria sin precedentes en la historia de la región. La posibilidad de enfrentar esa crisis se ve severamente afectada por el conflicto político y sus repercusiones internacionales. Al mismo tiempo, los esquemas tradicionales de ayuda humanitaria no se dan abasto o quedan obsoletos dada la complejidad de la situación venezolana. Buscamos promover soluciones que trasciendan la lucha política y puedan ser aplicadas aquí y ahora.

Nuestro liderazgo

Petróleo por Venezuela nace bajo la tutela del economista venezolano Francisco Rodríguez. Rodríguez fue director de investigación para el Informe de Desarrollo Humano, elaborado por el Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo. Obtuvo su doctorado en Economía en la Universidad de Harvard en 1998 y ha enseñado economía en la Universidad de Maryland, Wesleyan University y el Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Administración. Ha publicado más de 50 artículos en revistas académicas y es reconocido como uno de los principales expertos en el estudio de la economía venezolana.

A think-tank for real-life problems

The organization began as an initiative to analyze and divulge the proposal of a Humanitarian Oil Agreement for Venezuela. This program is inspired on prior international experiences and follows the recommendations of international commissions to improve its design and prevent risks related to similar schemes. Oil for Venezuela is based on preexisting knowledge to generate innovative and self-supporting mechanisms to face the humanitarian crisis under four major principles:

De-politicization

Our initiatives aim to be outside government control and governed by the strict parameters of impartiality that normally characterize successful international aid organizations in other parts of the world. One of the targets of this program is to assure that the distribution of goods to recipients is depoliticized and does not serve as an instrument of political domination.

Transparency

Corruption in the management of funds is one of the largest risks in the design of a humanitarian aid program. In this sense, the mistakes of the past are the best teachers. Our initiatives will be protected through regulation including several levels of oversight to prevent that resources destined to recipients get redirected by unscrupulous hands.

Sustainability

Is a key factor that rules our initiative’s insights. In structural crises such as Venezuela’s, isolated strategies not only fail to achieve their goals, but are also hampered by limited resources. Our initiatives seek to design mechanisms that place the wealth of Venezuela at the service of its most vulnerable population for as long as it takes for the political conflict that hampers growth and impedes stabilization of the economy.

Non-affiliation

Although the implementation of some humanitarian schemes requires political agreements, our foundation, as well as the initiatives it promotes, is not affiliated and does not respond to the interests of any political party or movement, inside Venezuela or abroad.