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REGIONAL BODIES MEET AT OAS TO DISCUSS COMMON AGENDA

The Secretary General of the Organization of American States OAS, José Miguel Insulza, met with representatives of the hemisphere’s regional bodies and institutions and invited them “to work together toward a common agenda that will help meet our most serious challenges.”

“We need to focus our efforts in finding solutions to fight poverty, the lack of development and the inability to provide what our citizens need,” Insulza told representatives of nine regional groups, who met at OAS headquarters to talk about “Engaging Hemispheric Institutions in Meeting Common Goals.” This was the first such coordination meeting convened by the Secretary General to exchange ideas about how to advance effective cooperation on issues of concern to the region.

Insulza said the meeting paved the way for a broad discussion of the economic, political and social situation in the countries of the region, which would help in determining priority issues to address in the short, medium and long term, and in developing an active, expanded cooperation at the regional and subregional level.

Participants discussed how ongoing integration processes could help enrich the political, economic and social discussion in Latin America and the Caribbean, and analyzed how democracy could be strengthened to be more inclusive and to address inequality in the region. Also discussed were such issues as sustained economic growth, the new challenges posed by integration, citizen security, immigration problems, and the prevention and mitigation of natural disasters.

Representatives of the institutions offered their perspectives on goals for the region and talked about how integration groups and financial institutions could contribute to possible solutions. The participants also worked on identifying areas that could be strengthened through greater inter-agency collaboration and discussed common issues to be presented at the European Union-Latin America/Caribbean Summit in May of this year.

The OAS Assistant Secretary General, Ambassador Albert R. Ramdin, also participated in the meeting, as well as high-level representatives of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS), the Inter-American Development Bank Inter-American Development Bank, the Andean Community of Nations (CAN), the Andean Development Corporation (CAF), the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the Common Market of the South (MERCOSUR), the Central American Integration System (SICA), the Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB) and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).

Reference: E-056/06