Sectoral and Ministerial Meetings

Sectoral and Ministerial Meetings

The mechanism for the dialogue that takes place within CIDI affords a significant opportunity to become an integral part of the process of building and following up on the Summit of the Americas. This Summits process, covering a wide array of issues, is coordinated by the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, who must naturally be supported by the sectoral areas in implementing it. Many such sectoral areas conduct their dialogues within the CIDI framework and, therefore, it has been sought to ensure that the outcomes of the sectoral meetings of CIDI are taken into account in the Summits follow-up process. It has also been sought to raise awareness among the sectoral areas of this relationship and its importance and, therefore, to ensure that they take advantage of it. Work has been done to build a two-way street, where not only does the Summit of the Americas issue mandates to the sectoral areas, but said areas also make recommendations to the Heads of State and Government, which accords particular relevance to the meetings of CIDI, especially the sectoral meetings.

The OAS is the forum for political dialogue par excellence in the Americas, its principal added value residing therein. In particular, the dialogue sustained within CIDI is especially relevant for the Organization, since it takes place among the highest authorities in areas of special interest to the region, such as education, labor, social development, culture, science and technology, sustainable development, tourism, and social development. Accordingly, one of the strategic objectives established by the Strategic Plan for Partnership for Development is improvement of mechanisms for policy dialogue, the idea being to promote policy dialogue in order to share information and best practices among member states and to assist in the effective and efficient development of governmental policies. To that end, it is hoped that such meetings, in addition to promoting this dialogue, which is highly important, will also establish priorities for action and serve as a mechanism for sharing expertise in the area of public policies and programs. The idea of ministerial meetings is not new-the region's labor ministers, for instance, have met periodically since the 1960's-but the process has been expanded and consolidated over the years. Nowadays, ministers meet on a regular basis to develop policies and exchange experiences to help the countries address their challenges in each of the following areas: