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OAS and FEDEMUNICIPOS of Colombia Sign Agreement to Strengthen Local Governments

The Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), José Miguel Insulza, and the Executive Director of the Colombian Federation of Municipalities (FEDEMUNICIPIOS), Gilberto Toro Giraldo, today signed a Memorandum of Understanding to strengthen local governments in the country.

Upon signing the document, Secretary General Insulza said the agreement "reflects the attention that Colombia has given to municipal governments, looking to bring people closer to their government." The OAS leader highlighted that "it is a fact demonstrated in several studies that what people feel affects them the most on a day to day basis are not the big decisions made by national governments, but are often the decisions taken by their municipalities."

The chief representative of the hemispheric Organization said that strengthening local governments "expands the possibility of opening a path to greater democracy." "We want to achieve greater democracy, transparency, participation and effectiveness," said the Secretary General, who stressed the importance of supporting the work of local governments "because in many municipalities in the region there remains a lack of training in the ways of making more efficient use of the scarce resources that many of them have."

For his part, Executive Director Toro said the agreement represents an opportunity "to ensure that the very important experiences of the mayors of our country, which often remain unknown, take on greater importance." "Sometimes we make the mistake of thinking that cooperation only implies looking from the south to the north, when in fact , in addition to such cooperation, south-south cooperation is very important. We share the same problems, the same difficulties, the same limited resources but there have been some local authorities who have sought solutions with creativity, and with support from the community, including private-public partnerships that are very important to solving these challenges," said the FEDEMUNICIPIOS leader.

The Memorandum of Understanding seeks, among other objectives, to strengthen the participation of local governments in the formulation of public policy; foster the exchange of experiences and cooperation between local governments on issues of common interest; facilitate consultation, coordination, and consensus building on major issues of local and national interest; and to conduct training seminars, workshops and dialogues for municipal government officials.

Before the signing ceremony, the Secretary General received Executive Director Toro in his office, together with the Permanent Representative of Colombia to the OAS, Andrés González Díaz; the Alternate Representative of Colombia to the OAS, José Luis Ramirez; and the Director of the Department for Effective Public Management of the OAS, Maria Fernanda Trigo.

A gallery of photos of the event is available here.

For more information, please visit the OAS Website at www.oas.org.

Reference: E-475/13