Ambassador
Ambassador's Speeches
THE ROLE OF CIVIL SOCIETY OORGANIZATIONS IN BILATERAL AND MULTILATERAL PUBLIC POLICIES
Remarks by Ambassador Lino Gutierrez at CIPPEC
September 21, 2005
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for coming here today.
Before I begin, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the people and government of Argentina for their condolences and kind offers of assistance to the United States after the destruction wrought by the recent hurricane in the Gulf States. We are very grateful for the assistance being given to the victims of Katrina, many of whom have lost everything but their lives. In fact, the rescue and recovery efforts in the aftermath of the hurricane are an excellent example of what we are here to discuss this morning.
Traditionally, international relations were conducted between and among governments with little or no input from private citizens. In democracies, private citizens, organized into "interest groups" if you favored their points of view or "factions" if you didn't, could and often did, influence government domestic policies and have done so for over 150 years. The abolitionist movement to rid the United States of slavery, the temperance movement to ban alcohol, and the women's suffrage movement are three issues that come to mind first. But there are lesser-known examples, too. For instance, the first child abuse case in the United States was brought to court by the ASPCA - the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals - on the grounds that a child was entitled to at least the rights of a dog.
The role that civil society organizations - NGOs - play internationally, however, is relatively new. The new technologies of 24-hour world-wide news services, the internet, and email make it possible to create "virtual" communities of civil society organizations, share and disseminate information, and coordinate activities across frontiers without the need for members of the organizations to ever leave their offices – or even meet each other – and at almost no cost.
The proper role of NGOs in international relations and their relationships with governments and international organizations are still being sorted out. There are those that claim that as NGOs become more active, international relations among governments will become less and less important; others argue that international affairs can only be conducted by governments and no other actors have a role to play. In the 21st century, the fact is that governments and NGOs must co-exist even if the relationships are sometimes difficult and uncomfortable for both.
The very nature of NGOs is that they may not share the same priorities as governments and may even have opposing goals both to those of the government and other NGOs. Some NGOs are of long-standing and may have impressive resources; others may be a lone person with nothing but a computer and a website.
Whatever their size or resource base, there are three basic ways in which NGO and government activities come together:
The first is as a "kickstart" whereby the activities of NGOs bring an issue to the forefront of attention, forcing governments (sometimes against their will) to address it. The research and expertise that NGOs acquire on an issue is critical to sway public opinion, thus forcing governments' hands. Critics of NGOs point out that they are unelected and have very little oversight to ensure that the information they provide is accurate. It is incumbent upon individual NGOs, therefore, to make sure that the information they provide can be proved to be accurate.
The second is as an "agent" when NGOs facilitate and support the role of the government. They may take on the role of mediator when civil society has broken down or act as election monitors. The International Republican Institute and the National Democratic Institute, just to name two examples, work in dozens of countries from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe to promote and strengthen democratic ideals and institutions.
And the third is where NGOs act as a "joint manager." Partners of the Americas, for example, works in concert with the Department of State to implement the American Fellows program, an initiative President Bush launched at the Quebec Summit in 2001. Two Argentine employees of the Secretaría de Ambiente y Desarrollo Sustentable spent two months last year working at the Environmental Protection Agency under this program. The NGO handles the logistics of the exchange, freeing up government employees to concentrate on the exchange itself. The Institute for International Education provides similar services to our Fulbright program.
During emergency situations, NGOs do critically important work as “joint managers.” We are seeing this going on right now in the U.S. Gulf states with the Red Cross, Salvation Army, Second Harvest, and many, many others providing assistance to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. No government anywhere in the world has enough employees or financial resources to provide all the assistance required immediately after a major natural disaster.
Very often, the work of NGOs is less formal, but no less important. There are numerous US NGOs doing good work in Argentina. For their part, Argentine NGOs are working hard to improve the lives of their fellow citizens, by promoting democratic governance and increasing understanding between our countries. Just two weeks ago, the Centro de Estudios Americanos published a book on “The American Idea” to introduce the Argentine public to the ideas and documents upon which the United States is based.
Increasingly, we are seeing NGOs being brought into government councils as interlocutors and partners. The OAS-General Assembly has a civil society component and is a vanguard multilateral organization in terms of citizen participation. It is in that bilateral and multilateral fora that governments consult broadly and draw on the views of organizations that have expertise in some of the key questions and issues of the day. The enhanced space for interaction allows NGO representatives to not only participate in meetings as observers, but to exchange views with official delegates, to comment on resolutions as they are prepared, and to help in the implementation and monitoring of special initiatives.
The OAS transmits draft General Assembly resolutions electronically to and holds virtual consultations with NGOs and promotes broad usage of the OAS website, which is its primary tool of information and participation. During the most recent meetings, in Ft. Lauderdale, civil society organizations – including from Argentina – met with government representatives to discuss the theme of “Delivering the Benefits of Democracy.” This dialogue, which is now institutionalized and has become a part of the regular agenda of the General Assembly, reflects the commitment of the OAS and its member states to include citizen participation in the decision-making process.
Civil society contributions are also valuable to the Summit process in that NGOs possess expertise in many of the areas relevant to its aims. The role of civil society organizations is to have a dialogue with member states and disseminate information regarding advances in the implementation of Summit mandates. NGOs that requested to participate in this process were evaluated based on the following criteria:
1. Equitable geographic representation
2. Relevant experience and background in the subject areas in question
3. The organization’s association and affiliation with other resources and organizations in the hemisphere; Networks
4. Involvement of stakeholders
The theme of this Summit meeting is "Creating Jobs to Fight Poverty and Strengthen Democratic Governance." Governments do not create jobs - the private sector creates jobs. But government has a critical role to play in setting the stage for the private sector to be able to create those jobs.
Government must provide quality education, vocational education, healthcare, and good democratic governance - anti-corruption, transparency, strength in local government and decentralization, independent, efficient and creditable judicial systems and the rule of law, enforcement of property rights and contractual obligations, and provide fiscal responsibility. Civil society, in the form of NGOs, has an important role to play in helping governments achieve these goals. NGOs were invited early in the Summit process to submit their ideas for developing recommendations that will be put forward to ministers and, finally, heads of state at the Summit in November. They have important roles both in implementing projects to achieve good governance and monitoring progress in these areas.
The U.S. Department of Labor, for example, works with governments, traditional labor organizations and organizations such as UNICEF, CARE, and Catholic Relief Services to provide technical assistance to combat the worst forms of child labor by removing the children from the workforce and providing them with education. In other cases, NGOs promote the employment of the disabled by providing training in job-readiness skills, improve working conditions of factories in terms of safety and health, and by running “one-stop” employment resource centers.
NGOs, with their frequently narrower focus, can provide needed expertise to government negotiators on areas of mutual interest. They can also provide follow-up monitoring to ensure that agreements reached and treaties signed are implemented and acted on. But that does not mean that more traditional international relations between governments are a thing of the past. It is only governments that can commit their countries to a particular policy and carry it through. Each of them - NGOs and governments alike - have their roles to play. If we all play our roles well, the benificiaries will be the citizens of our countries. A goal we all share.