|
|
|
|
Updated June 27, 2000 Second Summit of the Americas: COOPERATION Under the heading "Eradication of Poverty and Discrimination", the Plan of Action of the Second Summit of the Americas contains a section entitled "Cooperation". This mandate states that "With the intention of achieving a greater impact in our national and collective efforts, we [the member State Governments] charge national agencies and organizations responsible for international cooperation with supporting the preparation and implementation of programs and projects which flow from the Plan of Action. Moreover, we request the participation of the multilateral cooperation institutions with the same objective". At the national level, various government ministries undertake cooperation activities. Many of these have an Internet homepage containing cooperation information. Please see the List of Government Sites. International organizations of the Inter-American System and of the United Nations System are also involved in cooperation projects. Some Internet links to these bodies are offered below: Within the OAS, the cooperation mandate is primarily accomplished by the Inter-American Council for Integral Development (CIDI). The Council has a comprehensive Internet homepage which describes the mission and programs of the Council in detail. In addition, some Offices, Departments and Units of the General Secretariat have their own cooperation projects. These include:
Other Departments/Offices are accessible through the main OAS homepage. Support by CIDI at the Political Level CIDI has shown itself to be an effective instrument in support of OAS mandates from Inter-American Summits. The main policy statement describing CIDI’s relationship to the Summit is contained in the March 1998 document, "Ministerial Meetings and Other CIDI Instruments for the Follow-up of Summits of the Americas," prepared by the Executive Secretariat for Integral Development (SEDI) for the Special Committee on Inter-American Summits Management as part of the latter’s report to the 1998 regular session of the General Assembly. This document describes the manner in which CIDI can support this process at four different levels: through ministerial meetings, inter-American cooperation programs and committees, OAS partnership for development projects, and coordination of the activities of other cooperation entities in support of the Summits. This document served as background to the Ministerial Dialogue on "CIDI and the Summits Process," which took place in the Third Regular Meeting of CIDI in Buenos Aires in March 1998. The Ministerial Dialogue resulted in the approval of CIDI resolution 50 (III-O/98). It recommended that, wherever possible, the sectoral authorities of member states utilize CIDI instruments to implement Summit mandates; that the Permanent Executive Committee of CIDI (CEPCIDI) identify specific cooperation initiatives to translate Summit commitments into action, and that SEDI maximize support for these initiatives by national governments, international financing organizations, and the private sector. The Plan of Action of the Second Summit of the Americas reinforced this decision by instructing the OAS, through Ministerial and other instruments under CIDI, to promote, articulate and facilitate cooperation and collective action and to this end convene, in concert with the national education coordinators, consultative forums to implement the mandates of its Chapter 1: Plan of Action for Education. In line with direction from the April 1998 CIDI Meeting, inter-American meetings of ministers of education and of labor were convened in June 1998 and September 1998 respectively to provide follow-up to the Santiago Summit Plan of Action mandates in these two areas. The organizational coordination of both Meetings was entrusted to the Executive Secretariat for Integral Development. Since CIDI was created, six Inter-American Programs have been adopted: Combating Poverty and Discrimination, Sustainable Development, Education, Culture, Science and Technology, and Tourism. The lines of action for the OAS in most of these Programs are complementary to mandates of the Santiago Summit Plan of Action. (The areas of Culture and Tourism are not reflected in the Santiago Plan of Action although they were in the Miami Summit Plan of Action). At the Fourth Regular Annual Meeting of CIDI in Washington in April 1999, further institutional measures to support the Summit process were decided: (a) the holding, under CIDI, of four inter-American ministerial meetings and four Inter-American Committee meetings in 2000; (b) strengthening the role of existing and future Inter-American Committees of CIDI in the areas of program development within the OAS to implement Summit mandates in their areas. One of the conclusions of the Policy Dialogue in this April 1999 Meeting, has been to mandate SEDI to work more closely with national cooperation agencies of member states in promoting follow-up to the plans of action of hemispheric Summits. Support of CIDI through its special multilateral fund (FEMCIDI) To date, CIDI’s grant financing instrument, FEMCIDI, represents the most consistent source of multilateral project support for Inter-American Summit commitments. CIDI projects approved for execution in 1998 and 1999 have included approximately $13M for hemisphere-wide or subregional Summit-related projects in the priority areas of the CIDI Strategic Plan. These are projects presented by member states and by specialized units of the OAS General Secretariat. According to CIDI Statutes, SEDI coordinates and is accountable for FEMCIDI spending. Projects are initially assessed by the nonpermanent specialized committees (CENPES), whose members are chosen by the member states, and those that are recommended are collectively approved by CEPCIDI against available funds from contributions received from the countries. One of the criteria considered in assessing all projects is the extent that they contribute to the implementation of Inter-American Summit commitments in priority areas of the CIDI Strategic Plan". The following is an illustrative list of approved multilateral and subregional projects that support the Santiago or Santa Cruz Summits Plan of Action mandates. They cover the 1997-98, and the 1998-99 periods (no national projects are included): Education (Chapter 1 of the Santiago Plan of Action)
Democracy, Justice and Human Rights (Chapter 2 of the Santiago Plan of Action)
Economic Integration and Free Trade (Chapter 3 of the Santiago Plan of Action)
Alleviation of Poverty and Discrimination (Chapter 4 of the Santiago Plan of
Action) Sustainable Development (Plan of Action of the 1996 Santa Cruz Summit) Committee to Coordinate Cooperation Programs of the Inter-American System The General Assembly also adopted a resolution, which created the Committee to Coordinate Cooperation Programs of the Inter-American System, in order to establish a mechanism that would improve the exchange of information and coordination of programs and activities related to technical cooperation. The Inter-American Agency for Cooperation and Development The Inter-American Agency for Cooperation and Development was established at a Special OAS General Assembly held November 15, 1999. The Agency is a subsidiary body of CIDI and its purpose is to promote, coordinate, and facilitate the implementation of the partnership for development programs, projects, and activities. This new Agency began operations on January 1, 2000. The Executive Secretariat remains part of the OAS General Secretariat and is expected to provide a more integrated approach to cooperation and development within the inter-American system as a whole. The Agency is specifically designed to complement, at the operational level, the Organization’s role in policy dialogue and the convocation of high-level meetings on hemispheric development issues. In addition to its principal emphasis on the planning and implementing of cooperation projects, it will give very high priority to promoting institutional strengthening in the Member States, human resource development through training and fellowships, and mobilization of additional human and financial resources for inter-American cooperation. At the Fifth CIDI Ministerial Meeting, April 13-14, 2000, representatives considered the role of the new Agency and how it can become an instrument for effective support of the Summit Plan of Action. A resolution approved in December 1999 allotted $8.3 M for 67 new projects in 2000, of which nearly all are regional or hemispheric wide in nature and many support Summit priorities. XXX OAS General Assembly During the OAS General Assembly held in Windsor, Canada, in June 2000, Governments approved the following resolutions related to this initiative:
Updated June 27, 2000 |