Since its start in 1994, the Esquel Group’s Civil Society Task Force has become a clearinghouse and a forum for debate on issues relative to the advancement of active citizen participation in the Americas. This has occurred especially within the framework of the Hemispheric Summit process, which has emphasized sustainable and inclusive development. Participants in the Task Force have spanned a wide range of organizations and affiliations, including representatives from US and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs), government agencies, multilateral institutions, foundations, academia, the media, and private for-profit organizations. The participant database exceeds 400 names, and an average number of 40-45 participants are present at each meeting. The meetings have been highly successful-”the best briefing in town” according to one participant-as a vehicle to coordinate civil society ideas on the Summit of the Americas processes, beginning in Miami (1994) and subsequent Summits in Santa Cruz, Bolivia (1996), Santiago de Chile (1998), Quebec City, Canada (2001), Monterrey, Mexico (2003) and Mar del Plata, Argentina (2005) Trinidad (2009). (For more information on the Summit of the Americas visit: summit-americas.org).
Meanwhile Esquel collaborates with other partner organizations across the hemisphere to:
Increase awareness about the Summit Process within the Governmental and Non-Governmental sectors of the countries of the region;
Promote constructive dialogue and collaboration between governmental and non-governmental sectors in each country, and within the latter, to foster implementation of Summit Mandates; and
Promote information exchange between civil society, governments and Summit officials at the hemispheric level to advance effective participation of civil society in the Summit Process.
In addition to the Summits, Task Force activities generate opportunities for civil society participation on other specific instances at the regional level. By addressing broader topics related to the strengthening of civil society in the region, the Task Force creates a critical mass of individuals interested in tackling particular subjects. Some of these have been:
The NGO Working Group on the OAS created in November 1998 to advise several country missions regarding the reform of the organization, particularly regarding its relationship to civil society. It helped design an NGO accreditation system within the OAS, which was approved by the General Assembly in June 1999.
Task Force participants monitored the Free Trade Area of the Americas’ (FTAA) Government Committee on Civil Society (GCCS), charged with devising procedures to promote discussions with civil society.
Esquel Group chaired a Working Group on Financing Participation in Development “To review and analyze options for financing public participation in development decision-making and to develop a consensus set of recommendations (including strategic considerations, best practices and innovative solutions) for consideration by governments, donors, development banks and agencies, and other interested organizations and individuals”.
Task Force participants were actively engaged in the definition of the Inter-American Strategy for Citizen Participation (ISP), a program of the OAS to promote transparent, effective and responsible public participation in sustainable development policies in the Americas. The ISP reported to the Task Force on a regular basis about their activities and new groups were formed upon the request of participants.
The Task Force has also offered a space for information on the efforts within international development assistance organizations to incorporate the role of citizens in their programs as well as within their own internal structures. As such the Task force has frequently hosted presentations by the European Commission, the Organization of American States, the World Bank and the Inter American Development Bank.
In addition, it continued encourage creation of forums similar to the Task Force on a pilot basis in several Latin American/Caribbean countries in co-ordination with the Inter American Democracy Network (IADN). The Task Force co-sponsored several teleconferenced sessions with the IADN, inspired a similar “Roundtable for a Culture of Transparency” in the Dominican Republic, and collaborated with a similar effort in Honduras.
Over the last few years the Task Force has conducted a series of presentations by distinguished experts on the construction of social capital as a pre-requisite to economic and social progress. Presentations have focused, for instance, on the roles of non-governmental actors in promoting -or hindering- such construction (Lester Salamon, Johns Hopkins University and David Crocker, University of Maryland), on the role of foreign assistance in this respect and the modifications that might be made to it (Thomas Carrothers, Carnegie Endowment), the role of civic values and culture in fostering such interconnections (Lawrence Harrison, Harvard University), the construction of social capital within community development efforts in the US (David Moore, The Harwood Institute and Andrea Anderson, The Aspen Institute), the theoretical underpinnings of the various kinds of social capital (Michael Woolcock, Cambridge University) and the empirical measurement of social capital (Deepa Narayan and Christian Grootaert, World Bank).
The Task Force has also sponsored presentations on various civil society initiatives and citizens’ participation. It has discussed the emergent civil society’s leadership related to law professionals (María Navarro, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Honduras; Aracely Zuniga, Universidad Católica de Honduras; and Beatriz Sosa, Instituto Tecnológico de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey), and the role of hemispheric organizations supporting civil society efforts to strengthen democracy (Janine Perfit, Inter-American Development Bank; and Larry Birns, Council on Hemispheric Affairs). From a different perspective it has also analyzed how the activism within the Latin American Catholic Church has been promoting social development after the 1980s (Carlos Quintana, U. S. Conference of Catholic Bishops; Mary DeLorey, Catholic Relief Services; and James Stormes, U. S. Jesuit Conference) and which opportunities and constraints has the social Catholicism of the 21st century to offer in order to advance citizen development (Joseph Palacios, Georgetown University; and Judith Torney-Purta, University of Maryland). A special session was dedicated to ongoing slave eradication efforts in the Americas (Binka Le Breton, Iracambi Atlantic Rainforest Research Centre, Brazil).
Recent Task Force sessions has addressed issues such as:
- The Best America Has to Offer at the Summit of the Americas: Mending Relations and Building Partnerships Through Citizen Diplomacy with Amb. Hector Morales, United States Permanent Representative, Organization of American States, and Jane Thery, Head of OAS-USA Relations, Organization of American States
- The Hemispheric Role of the OAS in Pursuing Democratic Citizenship in the Context of the Summit of the Americas, with Irene Klinger Director, Department of International Affairs-OAS, David Morris Director of the Summits of the Americas Secretariat, OAS and Pablo Zúñiga, Department for State Modernization and Governance, Secretariat for Political Affairs Director – OAS.
- Transnational Realities of Latinos in the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean: Examining the HIV/AIDS Epidemic in the Region, with the National Latino AIDS Action Network (NLAAN)
- The US and Cuba: A Long View of a Obsessive Relationship 1809-2009 and Beyond, with Phillip Brenner, Professor of International Relations and History, American University, and Anna Nelson, Distinguished Historian in Residence, American University.
- The Second Conquest: Indigenous Movements in Latin America and the Struggle for their Lands, Natural Resources, and Cultures, with Mac Chapin, Director of the Center for the Support of Native Lands, and Chuck Kleymeyer, Senior Fellow, Center for the Support of Native Lands, and manager of the International Program for Food for All.
- The Other Lost Colony: Puerto Rico and the Unfinished Task of the American Empire, with Awilda Paláu Suárez, journalist and retired Professor, the University of Puerto Rico, Alfredo Carrasquillo Ramirez Universidad del Sagrado Corazon in Puerto Rico, and David Lewis, Vice President of Manchester Trade Ltd.
- Aid has not meant development: so are donors, aid agencies or governments capable of inventing a smarter aid? If not, Who can? with Randall Nielsen Program Officer, The Democracy and Economic Change Initiative at the Kettering Foundation, William Reuben, Former Civil Society Coordinator at the World Bank and Charlotte Jones Carroll, ex-World Bank and Co-leader of the study group on international development assistance at Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, American University.
- The best-laid plans of banks and men…(or how development assistance is finally acknowledging the need to engender a demand for good governance to match the supply and insure the effectiveness of its measures) with Rodrigo Serrano-Berthet, Senior Social Development Specialist, Sustainable Development Department, Latin America and the Caribbean Region, The World Bank, and Rodrigo Villar Director InternationalPrograms, Fundación DIS, Bogotá, Colombia.
- Ethics of Global Development: Agency, Capability and Deliberative democracy, with David A. Crocker, University of Maryland
- Getting to Pluricultural Justice in Bolivia: Development Implications of a System Treating Indigenous and Western Justice as Equals In collaboration with The International Development Program Student Association, School of International Service of American University, with Martha Cecilia Villada, Ed.D., Partners of the Americas, Bolivia Chief of Party and Citizens Working for Justice Director; Ramiro Molina, Ph.D., lawyer, anthroplogist, and expert in plural justice; and Michael Willis, J.D., lawyer specializing in representing American Indian tribes and tribal organizations before judicial, legislative and regulatory bodies and expert on plural justice