Media Center

Press Release

OAS and the Senate of Colombia Prepare Meeting on Legislative Management for Development

The Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), José Miguel Insulza, today met with the President of the Senate of the Republic of Colombia, Armando Benedetti, with whom he spoke about the role and importance of the legislative branch in development and about the preparations for the meeting on "Legislative Management and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean," to be held in September in Colombia.

The Secretary General expressed the support and commitment of the OAS with the holding of the meeting and stressed the importance of strengthening relations between international and multilateral institutions and parliaments, as well as the unrestricted support to the independence of this state power. "We are very interested in everything that is done to strengthen the effective nature of all the powers and strengthening its independence," he said.

The head of the hemispheric organization also recommended linking this initiative with the implementation of the Sixth Summit of the Americas to be held in April 2012 in Cartagena de Indias, and shared the view expressed by the President of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos, that "the center of this meeting should not be whether this will be the decade in Latin America, but what should we do to make it so." In that sense, Secretary General Insulza welcomed the theme chosen for the hemispheric meeting, "Connecting the Americas: Partners for Prosperity," which includes a focus on development, inequality and the prevention of natural disasters. He also recalled that in the framework of the Summit a parliamentary event has been already established, therefore next year’s event will be "a good opportunity to consider and move forward on these issues."

At the meeting, held at OAS headquarters in Washington, DC, Senator Benedetti alluded to the role of parliaments in the development of countries, and highlighted the opportunity that the September meeting will offer to help identify progress and build a shared agenda. "The Senates are actors and promoters of development, we debate and decide laws that are related to development and we must ensure that the law is promoting inclusive development," he said.

The Colombian lawmaker also referred to initiatives undertaken in Colombia in terms of development and social responsibility and mentioned the possibility that other countries in the region consider the nature of the law a "tool for inclusive development." In this regard, he explained that the September event is an effort to bring the legislative bodies to the debate on the reform of the aid architecture for cooperation, and prepare them for the Fourth High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness to be held in Busan, South Korea, between November 29 and December 1, 2011.

The OAS, as the Technical Secretariat of the Inter-American Cooperation (CooperaNet) has been linked to the process of promoting dialogue and consensus-building in Latin America and the Caribbean to advance the agenda on the efficacy of Cooperation for Development. Likewise, it is working, through its Unit to Support the Legislative Branch of the Secretariat for Political Affairs, with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Congress of Colombia to advance this initiative and facilitate inter-parliamentary cooperation.

Today's meeting was also attended by the Permanent Representative of Colombia to the OAS, Ambassador Luis Alfonso Hoyos, and senior officials from the OAS and the IDB.

A gallery of photos of the event is available here.

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

Reference: E-769/11