Washington -- Citizen involvement is increasing in the Summit of the Americas process, which focuses on promoting security and economic prosperity in the Western Hemisphere, several civil society officials tell America.gov.

For example, about 120 representatives of civil society organizations from more than 30 countries in the Americas participated in a May 1-2 Civil Society Hemispheric Forum in Miami.

The event was hosted by the Organization of American States (OAS) and the government of Trinidad and Tobago and supported by the State Department, the U.S. Agency for International Development and two nongovernmental groups -- the Open Society Institute and the Inter-American Foundation. Participants included groups promoting youth, indigenous populations, the physically challenged, people of African descent living in the Americas and representatives of academia.

Recommendations generated at the Miami event will be presented for inclusion in a “Declaration of Commitment” at the fifth Summit of the Americas, to be held in Trinidad and Tobago in April 2009. The 2009 summit theme is “Securing Our Citizens' Future by Promoting Human Prosperity, Energy Security and Environmental Sustainability.”

VIEWS OF CIVIL SOCIETY

Racquel Smith, who represented the Canadian Foundation for the Americas at the Miami meeting, says citizens need to know what priorities their governments are setting for the summit, a meeting of the 34 leaders of the region’s democratic nations. Events such as the Miami meeting allow citizen groups to “partner in helping to advance” these priorities, said Smith, who is a project manager for her Ottawa-based organization.

Smith said “things have come a long way” in the last 10 years in keeping citizen groups involved in the summit process. Prior to that time, she said, citizens learned what issues governments cited as their priorities through “sideline consultations.” But “to the credit of the summit organizers, they have really started a process of consultation with civil society” on what themes should be included for the Trinidad and Tobago agenda, she said.

Such consultation, Smith said, “puts a face on civil society” by allowing citizen groups not only to listen to summit themes, but also to contribute ideas for the summit plan of action, which sets the broad objectives for hemispheric leaders to enhance democracy and human rights, reduce poverty and violent crime, promote economic growth and competitiveness and encourage energy security and sustainable development.

Another participant in the Miami meeting, Bianca Cappellini, a project manager for the Connecticut-based Lawyers Without Borders, said that her previous perception of the summit process was that the hemisphere’s governments set the region’s priorities with minimal input from civil society. The Miami meeting allowed civil society groups to “collaborate” on what the summit agenda should include, she said.

Jadir Hernandez, chairman of the Miami-based Civil Rural Development Project, said citizen involvement in the summit has become even more important as self-styled “populist” left-wing leaders in Venezuela and Bolivia amass power and align with dictatorial regimes in Iran and Syria.

Giving citizens a chance to have their social and economic needs reflected in the summit process promotes democracy in Latin America and the Caribbean, said Hernandez, who also participated in the Miami meeting.

Andrea Sanhueza, executive director of Corporación Participa in Chile, said her group works to inform citizens about the summit process and its importance regarding the decisions government leaders make on public policy.

Sanhueza told America.gov that U.S. citizens are more able to hold their elected leaders accountable to summit commitments than are citizens in Latin America and the Caribbean, where “people are not very aware” of the summit process.

Sanhueza’s organization helps coordinate the Active Democracy Network, composed of 24 civil society organizations in the Americas. The network assesses the extent to which governments fulfill their promises on such issues as access to public information, freedom of expression, empowerment of local governments and decentralization and support for civil society participation in governance.

Another nongovernmental group promoting citizen involvement in the summit process is the Washington-based Partners of the Americas. The group’s Center for Civil Society is involved in such issues as judicial reform, strengthening of local government, anti-corruption efforts and transparency.

U.S. OFFICIAL ADDRESSES SUMMIT GOALS

In citing the need for civil society’s involvement in summit decisions, Hector Morales, U.S. permanent representative to the OAS, said May 1 at the Miami meeting that “in today's world, the problems confronting states are too complex even for the most powerful states to tackle alone.”

Morales, also the U.S. national summit coordinator, said that “to address these problems effectively, we need to be challenged as governments -- to spur change and to force us to consider new approaches -- individually and collectively.”

Morales said the 2009 summit will allow the next U.S. administration, working with the OAS and the “strong leadership” of Trinidad and Tobago, “to build on summit successes and develop bold initiatives that delver concrete, measurable results in support of our common hemispheric agenda." President Bush’s term in office ends January 20, 2009.

More information about the Center for Civil Society is available on the Partners of the Americas Web site.

Additional information about the Active Democracy Network is available in Spanish on the organization’s Web site.

More information on civil society’s participation in summit-related events is available on the OAS Summit of the Americas Information Network.