The future of the region in the global context.

• Author: Cattivelli, Adrian
• Position: OAS - Latin America

As IT CONFRONTS the world financial crisis, Latin America must find a way to keep its promises in essential areas of education, health, housing, and security while making the best of small governments and reduced fiscal income, said OAS Secretary General, Jose Miguel Insulza. He warned that even though the region's governments are now more transparent, solid, realistic, and decisive about confronting challenges, they will still have to address this issue in the context of the economic complexities that will impact them in the near future.

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In a panel held January 30 in the context of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, Secretary General Insulza, Mexican president Felipe Calderon, and Colombian president Alvaro Uribe shared their perspectives on the future of the region and their own countries in the current international economic context.

The discussion was focused on the social and economic situation of Latin America in the context of the macroeconomic stability and sustained development achieved by the region in recent years. The region's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has grown by more than five percent per year in the last six years, and the poverty rate has been reduced by almost ten percent.

Insulza spoke of the importance of defining new policies to confront the crisis in Latin America while being very clear about capacity and limitations. He added that the need for coherence between government promises and the fiscal reforms necessary to keep those promises "is a subject that Latin America is going to have to confront at some point."

"In the midst of the crisis," he said, "we have learned a great deal about good governance and we have seen improvements in the region. Today our governments are stronger and more realistic." Insulza...