Organisation of American States - Program Support 2008-2011

Results achieved as of the end of the project (June 2011) include: (i) mediating critical political situations in Bolivia El Salvador Guatemala Honduras Venezuela Haiti and Ecuador; (ii) strengthening the ability of the Organization of American States (OAS) to undertake political analysis and forecasting; (iii) establishing the Meeting of Ministers Responsible for Public Security in the Americas to discuss public security concerns and guide regional and national policy-making processes; and (iv) supporting the development and implementation of mechanisms to increase the participation of civil society organizations (CSO) in the decision-making processes of the OAS by providing training to 300 CSOs in the OAS and Summit of the Americas processes and by giving 15 new CSOs from indigenous communities OAS registry status. The Summits of the Americas are institutionalized gatherings of the heads of state and government of the Western Hemisphere where leaders discuss common policy issues affirm shared values and commit to concerted actions at the national and regional level to address challenges faced in the Americas. The project helped to improve the capacity of governments and municipalities to manage their operations by training 1 772 government officers in government procurement green procurement and e-government; funding 126 modernization projects to incorporate information and communication technologies; training 266 government officials citizens and legislators in public administration and training 766 of them in the application of the Inter-American Model Law on Access to Public Information. The project also helped to prevent and combat trafficking in persons by training 585 government officials from13 English-speaking Caribbean countries to prevent identify investigate and protect victims of trafficking.