On the summit of challenges.

• Author: Conaway, Janelle
• Position: OAS

Spotlight on Fighting Poverty

THE PRESIDENTS and prime ministers of the OAS member countries, meeting for the Special Summit of the Americas in Monterrey, Mexico, set new goals designed to stimulate equitable economic growth, promote human and social development, and strengthen democratic governance.

Combating poverty is the hemisphere's greatest challenge, President Vicente Fox of Mexico said during the opening ceremony. Noting that "democracy and development go hand in hand," he stressed that all the countries share responsibility for addressing the growing problems of inequality, exclusion, and underdevelopment.

"Without a doubt, the individual and collective security of our countries is seriously threatened by the sharp disparities within and between our nations," said Fox.

It was a theme echoed again and again during the two-day meeting. "Never before have there been so many poor people ill Latin America and the Caribbean as today," said President Ricardo Lagos of Chile. He added that some 225 million people in the region live in poverty today--25 million more than in 1990.

"Citizens do not want only democracy, they want that democracy to bring them concrete answers to their dreams," Lagos said.

President George W. Bush of the U.S. recalled that world leaders had met in the same city two years earlier and adopted the Monterrey Consensus, which aimed to make governments more responsive to people's basic needs and expand opportunities for all.

"The nations of this hemisphere must identify concrete steps to implement the noble ideas of the Monterrey Consensus," Bush said, adding that priorities should include providing quality education and health care, promoting a free market, and improving opportunities for small business. "Over the long term," he said, "trade is the most certain path to lasting prosperity."

Prime Minister Paul Martin of Canada -- one of fourteen leaders who had taken office since the Third Summit of the Americas in Quebec City--called for action on several fronts to face today's "challenging times." The region needs to enact fiscal reforms, establish effective regulatory institutions, "get the sequence right on trade liberalization," and at the same time build a social safety net that includes accessible health care and education, according to Martin.

"And finally, we must do all of these things in an inclusive way so that these policies respond to the needs that citizens themselves express," he said.

In Monterrey, the...