APPENDIX A

 

A.      Working Group 1 – Weak Rule of Law, a Threat to Citizen Security

 

1.       Identify and recognize local social microstructures even if they have not achieved institutional recognition; i.e., leaders who have earned respect in their local social structures through their informal activities, and therefore are able to meet social needs through legitimate structures.

 

2.       Strengthen citizen security through participatory budgeting, in the understanding that the community itself can identify its main needs for social investment.

 

3.       Develop the capacity for citizens to engage in social auditing (social monitors, public watchdogs, etc.) as a process of continuing improvement in which all community sectors are involved, and which results in recommendations for corrective or remedial actions.

 

4.       Establish clear and understandable regulations and descriptions of responsibilities in the public sphere, in order for citizens to readily understand and assess the adequacy and quality of public services, and compel the local authority to consider and respond to citizens’ claims.

 

5.       Strengthen law enforcement by establishing adequate systems of audit, control, and limits, towards efficient functioning and benefit to the community.

 

B.      Working Group 2 – The Impact of the Global Economic Crisis on the Americas

 

1.       Promote internal legislation so that our countries have macroeconomic and structural management tools that strengthen them to better face potential changes in the world’s state of affairs, in a way that makes it possible to take defensive action in case of external threats that could destabilize our economies.

 

2.       Legislate to promote – through public policies – management of knowledge of human resources, science and technology in order for our countries to become competitive, in local and international markets, in fields such as education, agriculture, health and industry.

 

3.       Legislate to strengthen the independence of the entities responsible for prosecuting corruption that causes an unfair distribution of wealth, and decreases confidence in democratic states, increasing political instability and social unrest.

 

4.       Create a legal framework that promotes the strengthening of domestic production, to satisfy internal demand and stop the commoditization of exports; this could be achieved through incentives for those producers who add value to their products, and also through legislation that causes an equitable distribution of wealth.

 

5.       Promote legislation that would turn the reintegration of migration flows into a positive factor for our economies.

 

C.      Working Group 3 – Climate Change and the Environment

 

1.       Aim for the diversification of energy sources that are compatible with protecting the environment. Each State should adopt the most appropriate energy matrix, from the point of environmental, social, economic and energy security, so that a coherent energy policy exists.

 

2.       Encourage the creation of public policies or the design of national strategies that stimulate energy savings.

 

3.       Seek international support among countries, international and regional financial institutions and development agencies, incorporating the concept of a green economy through a more equitable and balanced distribution of the global carbon market.

 

4.       Recommend to States that they increase their investment in research and technology in the energy sector as an engine of sustainable development through the exchange of technology and knowledge between developed and developing countries.

 

5.       Improve, implement and monitor national and international environmental law (whether treaties, agreements, protocols or conventions) that has been approved and ratified by each State, abolishing subsidies, taxes and incentives that are unhelpful or counterproductive to the environment, and ensure its implementation.

 

D.      Working Group (Women Parliamentarians Group) Recommendations on the Financial Crisis and its Effects on Women in the Region

 

1.       Encourage the private sector to hire a female labour force in times of economic contraction. (This goes against the normal presumption that it is the man who needs employment). Finance, with state funds, quality job-training programs for young people.

 

2.       Promote positive initiatives so that the banking system offers financial services to women with limited resources. Promote, along with these banking services, credit policies that also encourage saving.

 

3.       Legislate to build, create, improve and support with human, technical, and financial resources, quality of care centres geared towards the elderly, children, people with disabilities, and those in other care situations, that have traditionally been assigned to women. Providing care is the reason that women are impeded from leaving their homes to work.

 

4.       Legislate so that public investments have rigorous and periodic impact evaluation systems, and monitor to ensure that the results of these evaluations define the content and direction of future investments.

 

5.       Monitor and ensure that conditional fund transfer policies encourage the cultural change necessary to advance our people out of the cycle of poverty (health, education, formal employment, etc.).