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Latin America and the Caribbean Regional Consultation
On June 5-6, 2008, the Government of Colombia—through Acción Social Presidential Agency, with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs—and the Inter-American Development Bank convened the Latin American and Caribbean regional consultation in preparation for the Accra High Level Forum (HLF). About 100 participants gathered in Santa Marta, Colombia, representing some 17 partner countries, 7 donor countries, 5 international organizations, and 13 civil society organizations.
The purpose of the consultation was to review the progress made in the region—by both partner countries and donors—toward the commitments made in the Paris Declaration and to set out messages from the region to be used in preparing the Accra HLF and in drafting the Accra Agenda for Action (AAA). A significant feature of the agenda was nine roundtables—on the same subjects as the roundtables planned for Accra—that allowed participants to bring a regional perspective to those subjects. (for summaries of the main messages from each of these roundtables, please see the section 6 of the final report.)
The spirit of the meeting was collegial. Participants were highly engaged, and the discussions were generally quite substantive. The overall messages were that many countries have made progress in many of the aid effectiveness areas of the Paris Declaration, although they realize that there is much more to do. Participants made it clear that countries in Latin America and the Caribbean—most of which are middle-income countries—are looking for ways to apply the Paris Declaration principles to their particular circumstances and that issues such as South-South and triangular cooperation should be included in the AAA.
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