July 6, 2000

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DEVELOPMENT AGENCY'S FIRST DIRECTOR GENERAL TAKES OFFICE

            The first Director General of the Inter-American Agency for Cooperation and Development (IACD), Ronald Scheman, today formally took office and outlined among priorities his plans to make the Organization of American States (OAS) and this subsidiary Agency "the education institution.�  

"Education is the key to our future," Scheman declared at an OAS ceremony installing him, as he listed good governance, jobs, competitiveness, respect for human rights, a good environment, and "perhaps most important, escape from poverty" among a host of fundamental elements derived from education. "Education is our mission� in bringing training and capacity-building to all our nations."

            Scheman reviewed what he described as a "tremendous obligation" for the Agency, explaining that its mission will be "to help the countries fulfil that obligation�[so] that we can bring the technical cooperation and the capacity-building to the nations, to build the institutions of democracy, to strengthen the institutions of democracy."  He said the Agency would also launch an all-out attack on poverty, adding that  "democracy cannot long survive unless the people feel the benefits of democracy." 

OAS Secretary General C�sar Gaviria cited Mr. Scheman's "life-long commitment to the betterment of the Americas" as he touched on the context in which the newly-created cooperation and development agency must function. "We look to the Agency to provide fresh ideas and renewed momentum that� modernize the organizational structure as well as the methods for deciding on, financing, and executing projects," he noted. 

            In pledging his fullest support, Chairman of the Permanent Executive Committee of the Inter-American Council for Integral Development (CEPCIDI), Grenada's Ambassador Denis Antoine, elaborated on the IACD's challenging task "to bring together the cooperation to develop our nations to combat poverty and to find ways to work together for a better future in our hemisphere."  

             The Inter-American Agency for Cooperation and Development was created in January this year to devise strategies to attract external funding to help promote development in OAS member countries.  Scheman, a former Executive Director at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), brings to the Agency  a  vast experience in hemispheric issues. 

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