Suriname, New Chair of the OAS Inter-American Council for Integral Development (CIDI)

Permanent Representative of Suriname to the OAS, Ambassador Niermala Badrising, assumed the leadership of the Inter-American Council for Integral Development (CIDI) on January 30, 2015. CIDI serves as a permanent regional forum for member states to discuss and follow-up on development issues, as well as to guide the work of the OAS Executive Secretariat for Integral Development (SEDI).

In assuming the chairmanship, Ambassador Badrising stated that her government “will emphasize integral development from a pragmatic approach, as it relates to the actual circumstances, needs, and priorities of the member states. Suriname recognizes the critical importance of CIDI’s endeavors for ensuring all-inclusive development and the inherent cross-cutting approach in this respect. We believe that this is fundamentally important in this post-2015 development climate, as this Council takes steps to align its mandates with those of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals.”

Ambassador Badrising also highlighted priority areas for Suriname’s chairmanship, under the premise that “the human being must be at the center” of development endeavors.  Priority areas include the advancement of inclusive quality education at all levels, emphasizing support to the teaching profession, early childhood education, and the incorporation of ICTs in education, among others. This focus will gain additional impetus next month in Panama at the Eighth Inter-American Meeting of Ministers of Education, where the sector’s policy leaders will chart a new education agenda for the Americas.

Former CIDI Chair, Ambassador Neil Parsan, Permanent Representative of Trinidad and Tobago to the OAS (June to December 2014), stressed that “it is undisputed that the development agenda is crucial to the future stability and success of our hemisphere. The work of CIDI therefore continues to be increasingly and fundamentally relevant.”

The transfer ceremony held at OAS headquarters featured the participation of both Ambassadors, as well as the Secretary General, José Miguel Insulza; Assistant Secretary General, Albert Ramdin; Executive Secretary for Integral Development, Sherry Tross, (see picture), as well as other guest Ambassadors.