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Last Updated: Feb 13, 2017 - 1:45:37 AM |
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The
Inter-American Council for Integral Development (CIDI) of the
Organization of American States (OAS) today held a general debate on the
development agenda of the Organization, in a regular meeting in
Washington, DC.
Upon beginning the meeting, the Chair of CIDI and Permanent
Representative of Bolivia to the OAS, Diego Pary, said “it is important
to recognize the interest expressed by the member states in the pillar
of integral development in our Organization,” and that
there is also a need to recognize that “we still have not achieved the
impetus we had hoped for” in this respect.
The CIDI Chair said the member states “are forced to make decisions, for
which we need a previous process of reflection” and that “the final
result should be the construction of the development agenda of the
Organization of American States, in which we identify
in an explicit way the objectives, priorities and results in the short,
medium and long term.”
The Secretary General of the OAS, José Miguel Insulza, highlighted that
the debate over a development agenda “is today more of a priority than
ever.” He emphasized the importance of making clear the focal points of
the issue, in terms of three criteria: “They
must be hemispheric issues, we must choose relevant issues, and we must
make a difference. No matter how difficult it may be, we have to rid
ourselves of issues on which our presence or absence does not make a
great difference.”
Recalling that the theme of the next General Assembly of the Organization, which will be held from
June 3 to 5
in Asunción, Paraguay, is “Development with Social Inclusion,” the
Secretary General expressed his hope that the Plan of Action for the
Social Charter
of the Americas will be approved during the meeting. The OAS leader
called the decision of the host country to focus the Assembly on this
issue “very opportune, as long as we have something to say, something to
propose.”
In addition, Secretary General Insulza recalled that this year “in the
United Nations the post 2015 development agenda is being debated
intensely.” To face the challenges of development in this period, said
the Secretary General, “this Organization has important
resources,” and added that “the problem is that at some point we must
sit down to decide which instruments we will use and how to order them
in a viable agenda.”
The OAS Executive Secretary for Integral Development (SEDI), Sherry
Tross, noted in her address that development has been chosen by the
government of Paraguay as the theme of the next General Assembly,
confirming that "this is a very critical issue for our
region."
Executive Secretary Tross said that despite the progress made during the
last decade, in which 61 million people in Latin America and the
Caribbean emerged from poverty, the Hemisphere remains the most unequal
region in the world. "From a multidimensional approach
to development, significant advances are not only related to the Gross
Domestic Product (GDP), but also to access and quality of education,
housing, water, sanitation, energy, income, social protection and
environment, among other things," she added.
The Executive Secretary for Integral Development recalled that during
the last 18 months SEDI has been restructured into three areas: Economic
and Social Development; Human Development, Education and Employment;
and Sustainable Development, in order to "optimize
functional synergies and strengthen internal capabilities in order to
meet the needs of member states." Tross added that the task of the new
departments of SEDI is to "deliver real results in political dialogue,
development cooperation and capacity building."
For his part, the Permanent Representative of Mexico and Chair of the
Working Group on Strategic Vision of the OAS, Emilio Rabasa, gave an
account of the progress made by the group he chairs, and announced it
will present a draft resolution relating to the
strategic objectives of the hemispheric institution to be considered by
the Foreign Ministers of the Americas at the 44th General Assembly of
Paraguay.
Ambassador Rabasa said the Working Group agreed that the strategic
orientation of this pillar should aim to have member states achieve
their goals of inclusive and sustainable integral social and economic
development. "This is done through measures aimed at
the widespread support for human resource development and the
strengthening of national capacities, as well as the strengthening the
Inter-American system, including the tripartite mechanisms IDB-ECLAC-OAS
to promote strategic partnerships to identify synergies
and resource mobilization for South-South, North-South, horizontal and
triangular development," he added.
At the beginning of the meeting, the CIDI Chair expressed his
condolences and that of the body he presides over to the victims of the
fire in the Chilean city of Valparaiso.
For more information, please visit the OAS Website at
www.oas.org.
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