On behalf of the Organization of American States (OAS) I would like to express my sincere thanks to the Government of Mexico, and in particular to the officials and staff of the Social Development Secretariat (SEDESOL) and the Foreign Affairs Secretariat, for both hosting and co-organizing the Inter-American Social Protection Network Technical Consolidation Meeting. Your leadership is of critical importance and we look forward to intensified collaboration following this meeting.

At the Summit of the Americas meeting held in Trinidad and Tobago in April 2009, our region's leaders called foof increased support of the Inter-American Social Protection Network to facilitate the exchange of information on policies, experiences, programs, and best practices to reduce poverty and social disparities. This mandate from the highest governance levels is a clear expression of the understanding that support to the IASPN should be considered a strategic investment to peacebuilding and the mitigation of conflicts in our societies.

The decision of the hemipsheric leads was taken against the backdrop of the beginning of an unprecedented global financial crisis in the post-War period, with many first world countries being thrown into one of the worst economic downturns they had endured in many decades.

Thus, several years of sustained growth were abruptly halted in 2009. Both the Canadian and United States economies experienced downturns, with increasing unemployment, while, according to ECLAC figures, the economies of Latin America and the Caribbean contracted, on average, 1.9%, causing unemployment to rise and interrupting the positive trend of previous years.

The unfavorable context created by the current crisis has forced us to redouble our efforts to achieve more just societies, particularly since Latin America is still a region beset by inequality and inequity. A continent with our level of development should not have one third of its inhabitants living below the poverty line. Nor is it compatible with our stated commitment to democracy, human rights, equality and social inclusion that between 3 and 5 percent of the population receives over 50 percent of national income.

Today, after battling the aftershocks of the financial crisis for several years, many countries are realizing that development and democracy are far more interconnected than ever before and that citizen insecurity has a direct correlation to inequality and lack of economic opportunity. And not only has globalization reconfigured the world both in terms of politics and economics, but it has also made more evident the importance of regional governance, essentially demonstrating in addition to all politics being local, so is economics.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, I have the impression that, despite pending problems, there is a new sense of optimism with respect to overcoming the crisis and resuming the growth needed to bring about a reduction of poverty and inequality. At the heart of the new vision is the role of a democratic state that is stronger and capable of leading our economies toward development with justice and equity.

While Latin America and the Caribbean have weathered the worst of the economic crisis much better than other regions of the world, our challenge continues to be to ensure that these democracies, which can certainly be perfected – a goal we in the OAS strive tirelessly to promote – yield the results and respond to the needs of all their people, especially the neediest.

In this regard special mention needs to be made of the political and financial attention that the youth in our countries require. The youth makes up the majority of our population. Almost half of the population of Latin America and the Caribbean is younger than 30 years.

So, to achieve these objectives we not only need macroeconomic progress and development, but also care and support for those who are repeatedly left behind in models designed for growth and progress.

This is what our regional Network aspires to achieve. At the Second Ministerial Meeting in Cali, Colombia last year, OAS member states agreed on strengthening the Inter-American Social Protection Network “as a mechanism of hemispheric cooperation in fighting poverty and inequity and to foster the transfer of successful experiences and analyses of the main challenges confronting social protection strategies”.

We are gathered here today to make public and approve a new operational phase of the IASPN. Since its high-level political launch in New York City, in September 2009, the Network has been consolidating its role of promoting the exchange and transfer among its members of experience and knowledge in the social protection area, and as a community of practice and regional learning.

At the very core of the Inter-American Social Protection Network is the conviction that countries can learn from their peers and build on each other’s experience. An example of this collaboration the OAS is very proud of is the experience and results achieved by the Puente in the Caribbean Program. This collaboration effort reflects the importance of horizontal cooperation in the field of social protection, and the Inter-American Social Protection Network’s potential for fostering collaboration and cooperation throughout the region. Obviously, we can all learn from each other by sharing successful strategies as well as lessons learned.

Furthermore, it is of key importance to stress the need for partnerships and alliances among all actors and institutions involved in social protection towards the common goal of reducing poverty and inequality in the region. In the case of the Puente in the Caribbean Program, not only have the Caribbean countries learned from Chile, but they have also shared their lessons and experiences with each other. The results of this initiative are highly encouraging, considering that four of the seven participating Caribbean countries have developed their own, home-grown programs, based on the exchange of knowledge and practices facilitated by the IASPN. As an example of these outcomes, I am pleased to share with you that two weeks ago Barbados launched its Bridge – ISEE program in a ceremony chaired by Prime Minister the Hon. Freundel Stuart.

This is the sort of dynamic cooperation which we value at the OAS and would like to encourage through the Inter-American Social Protection Network.

As the region's principal multilateral political forum, the OAS is uniquely positioned to convene a diverse range of public and private representatives and to encourage dialogue and action to advance social protection.

This is why I was so pleased with last year’s Second Meeting of Ministers and High Authorities of Social Development “in which the discussion centered on Strengthening Social Protection Systems and Rendering them Sustainable,” a title that captured both the significance of social protection, as a set of measures for enhancing or protecting a society’s human capital, and the importance of ensuring the availability of funding for those policies and programs, even at times of crisis. While we must continue striving for increased social expenditure, we have to acknowledge that such expenditure has in fact grown in the past ten years: a sign that our countries are committed to pursuing social policy and financing it, which in turn is a sign of its legitimacy.

I truly believe that policies to promote equity should above all seek to apply the equal opportunity principle and ensure that factors as gender, race, place of birth and family status do not determine a person’s chances of success.

Furthermore, the legal and administrative protection and nondiscrimination systems for guaranteeing citizens fair and equal treatment throughout life need to be perfected.

These principles are further underscored in the 2010 Millennium Development Goals Inter-agency Report on Achieving Equality in Latin America and the Caribbean, which highlights that inequality is a core problem in the region, making it relevant to identify the main areas of inequality in relation to each of the Goals in order to seek public policies that better address this problem throughout the region. What is more, the report stresses the need for a rights perspective, stating that “each Millennium Development Goal, target and indicator needs to be interpreted in a human rights context”.

At the Millennium Summit that took place in New York in September 2010 at the United Nations, country leaders committed to keeping the promise of achieving the Millennium Deelopment Goals, and they also agreed to unite in order to achieve these strategic objectives. In particular, they stated that “promoting universal access to social services and providing social protection floors can make an important contribution to consolidating and achieving further development gains. Social protection systems that address and reduce inequality and social exclusion are essential for protecting the gains towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals”.

Against this backdrop, we will present today and tomorrow the main components of the IASPN, which, we are confident, will make a significant contribution to OAS Member States in their efforts to reduce poverty and inequality. The advances so far will provide key inputs for the preparatory process of the VI Summit of the Americas, to be held next year in Colombia, and for the III Meeting of Ministers and High Authorities of Social Development, scheduled to take place in Brazil in 2012.

Several donors have made important contributions to the development of the IASPN, but allow me to acknowledge the importance of the grant received from the United States Department of State, which provided the principal funding for the IASPN launch and the development of its main tools.

As I stated earlier, the aftermath of the global crisis and the reality of our Hemispheric challenges impel us to work toward development and the establishment of a sustainable democratic state that delivers tangible results to its citizenry.

Given the key challenges ahead, member states’ advancements and results in the social development field-such as the programs and policies to be discussed these following two days provide ample space for the interchange of successful stories and ideas for the way forward in this regard.

In addition, I am convinced that the convening of this meeting, with a wide range of institutions and policymakers from throughout the region, will provide the appropriate setting for advancing a common social development agenda in the region.

The unwavering commitment of the Organization of American States to integral development and democratic governance motivates us always to seek strategic partnerships that enable us to advance toward those goals. And the inter-sectoral coordination that has been so striking at the domestic level is also present in the inter-American system.

In short, the topics, strategies, experiences and lessons learned, you will discuss in this meeting are fundamental for resolutely moving to develop innovative social policies capable of meeting the challenge of progressing toward greater social justice in democratic societies. We have a long way to go, but our task will be far lighter if we achieve more unified political will, increased resources, the institutional strengthening of government agencies, and greater civil society participation.

Concrete actions, such as this Meeting, are clear manifestations of this hemispheric effort to achieve more just and equitable social development.

I closing I again state the commitment of the OAS General Secretariat to social development and democracy, as well as our steadfast resolve to support the outcome and proposals resulting from this meeting.

I wish you a most productive meeting and I look forward to the concrete recommendations.