BOX 8.
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT AND GOVERNANCE IN LATIN AMERICA
This project grew out of a meeting
organized by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)
and the Senate of Chile to address the critical challenge
facing Latin American countries in making the transition
from dictatorship to democracy. It begins with the
understanding that successful political cooperation at
the regional level depends largely on building up a
regional consensus on key themes that must be worked out
jointly with social groups in the region. The project
therefore tries to help the participating countries in
establishing participatory mechanisms at various
decision-making levels, involving youth, women and
minority ethnic groups, NGOs, and other grass-roots
groups to discuss and formulate national plans of action
on democracy and human development. The project has been
successful largely for the following reasons:
- It is demand-driven.
Project concepts were not imposed from
outside. Rather, the regional governments took
the initiative on their own to identify priority
themes and to build consensus at the regional
level through consultations with local
authorities, NGOs, civil society and the private
sector.
- It stimulates regional dialogue.
The project tries to promote regional
dialogue on governance and human development
through the establishment of a network of actors
capable of analysing regional experiences and
through the formulation and implementation of
policies and programmes that would be adopted by
the participating governments. Three regional
working groups were established: decentralization
of the State with headquarters in Mexico;
administration of justice (Costa Rica); and
political parties and parliament (Chile). This
strategy, while strengthening the capacity of
local/regional institutions in governance and
human-development strategies, has introduced a
culture of dialogue and consultations between
government and civil society in the participating
countries.
- It provides advice to
governments. The project seeks
effective means by which to provide advice on
measures and steps that governments and political
actors could undertake to operationalize human
development in the region. This is achieved
through the provision of assistance to reform
political institutions, technical cooperation in
developing effective implementation strategies
and assistance regarding problems of governance
for governments and political agents who request
UNDP support.
- It develops capacity.
The project's capacity-development strategy
involved primarily workshops, training and
operational support to government institutions,
political parties and civil society groups. In
terms of substantive focus, the project has
devoted resources to the following: strengthening
of the judicial system; modernization of the
executive branch; decentralization of the State;
eradication of corruption; strengthening of the
political party system and political leadership;
and a review of the role of the armed forces.
- It disseminates and shares
information. The regional network
approach allows the sharing of information across
the region and learning from best-practice cases.
Results of regional and national meetings are
disseminated throughout the region and, in some
cases, results of national and regional workshops
are discussed at the regional level through the
organization of periodic regional meetings.
Upon completion of operational
activities, it is expected that the project will have
contributed to a regional vision on governance and human
development. UNDP's regional presence and its image of
neutrality have helped move the process smoothly and the
different actors, including government, have been open to
discussing such sensitive issues as corruption,
mismanagement and the opening up of the political process
for greater civil society involvement. In the process,
UNDP has developed a more comprehensive notion of
sustainable human development that encompasses economic,
social, and democratic development.
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