Shaping a regional agenda.

• Author: Conaway, Janelle
• Position: INTER-AMERICAN SYSTEM

In April, the region's 34 democratically elected leaders will meet in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, for the Fifth Summit of the Americas, focusing on how they can work together to advance prosperity, strengthen energy security, and promote sound environmental policies.

As the first hemisphere-wide meeting of Heads of State and Government in more than three years, the Fifth Summit will include many new faces; more than half the countries of the region have elected new leaders. This will also be the first time since the process began in 1994 that a Summit of the Americas is held in a Caribbean country.

The Fifth Summit will serve as a "strategic guide" that will orient the actions of the Organization of American States and other multilateral organizations for years to come, according to OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza. He noted that the overall theme put forward by Trinidad and Tobago--"Securing Our Citizens' Future by Promoting Human Prosperity, Energy Security and Environmental Sustainability"--encompasses the region's principal challenges and concerns.

Since September, the OAS member states have been holding regular negotiating sessions on the draft Declaration of Commitment to be adopted by the presidents and prime ministers in Port of Spain. The final document, Insulza said, "should first be a commitment that our governments assume and second, a clear mandate that the leaders will give the international organizations for the tasks they should carry out."

For the host country, the aim has been to focus on a few key issues in which multilateral cooperation can make a real difference, said the National Summitt Coordinator, Ambassador Luis Alberto Rodriguez. He said it is important to set clear targets, with specific timeframes for meeting them, "never losing sight of the fact that it is the people of our region for whom all of this is intended."

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"Poverty, inequality, and marginalization have become the bane of existence for too many in our societies," Rodriguez told a forum in Washington in September. "This situation is now compounded by high food and energy prices, climate change and the threats to our environment, and the need to encourage greater energy efficiency and independence."

Such challenges, he added, will take greater cooperation and coordination among governments than ever before, as well as the active participation of civil society, the private sector, and the region's multilateral...