The Organization of American States (OAS) must fully transform management practices, improve budget priorities and exploit top communication technologies, OAS Secretary General candidate Maria Fernanda Espinosa told Sputnik
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th February, 2020) The Organization of American States (OAS) must fully transform management practices, improve budget priorities and exploit top communication technologies, OAS Secretary General candidate Maria Fernanda Espinosa told Sputnik.
Espinosa, who used to serve as President of the 73rd Session of the UN General Assembly, Ecuador's Minister of National Defense as well as Minister of Foreign Affairs, pointed out that she has developed a program of work after discussions and fruitful exchanges with several governments, authorities, heads of state, and foreign ministers. She noted that the program has three areas.
"The first area is... related to the management of the organization, in terms of its financial sustainability," Espinosa said. "There is a need... of a full refurbishing of the organization, of a full transformation of the organization from each management perspective."
The organization, she said, has "had red numbers and deficits for several years now." Financial sustainability, she added, has to be done according to the priorities of member states.
Espinosa also said the organization needs proper human resource policies that reflect what the OAS charter mandates, including proper geographic representation, gender equality compliance, and policies based on merit and not the discretion of a secretary general.
"The second area of work that I'm proposing is to refresh the agenda. I mentioned that we have close to 600 mandates. I think it is time also to prioritize funding according to the current reality and current needs and expectations of member states," she said.
The third issue, Espinosa continued to say, is to modernize the organization using top information and communications technologies.
The OAS Secretary General candidate said that all three proposed aspects are related to the code of ethics. OAS' Article 118 says the Secretary General cannot receive instructions from an outside authority, must not promote personal interests nor represent partisan groups, she noted.
The OAS leader, she added, must also carry out functions in a very constructive, good faith manner and reach agreement through dialogue.
"First of all... the role of a secretary general is to act as a bridge builder and as a consensus builder," Espinosa said. "And also to lead the organization in accordance to the rules of multilateralism, which means that who takes the decisions are the governing bodies of the organization, which are the permanent council and its general assembly."
A secretary general should lead, implement, and deliver in accordance to the decisions taken by member states, Espinosa said.
"That's the secret of multilateralism. That's the way it operates," she said.
Espinosa continued to say that building consensus should be done through a joint positive agenda.
"There are so many things that unite the hemisphere. More things that unite us than the issues that divide us," she said.
The issues that unite OAS members, the former Ecuadorian official added, include a shared colonial history and commitment to combat poverty, inequality, climate change, organized crime, drug trafficking and violence against women.
Espinosa underlined that the slogan for her campaign is to build a unity in diversity.
"We should not be naive because there are different positions on critical issues. But the role of a Secretary General is certainly not to exacerbate polarization and conflict, but on the contrary, a Secretary General should be the person who brings the parties together, who is seen as an independent convener and as an honest broker to reach consensus," she said.
Espinosa stressed that the four pillars - namely democracy, human rights, multi-dimensional security and inclusive development - should be addressed in an interconnected and integrated way.
"Unfortunately the organization has focused on one or two issues, and we know which issues these are. They have completely forgotten, for example, the development agenda. They have forgotten the cooperation agenda," she added. "The charter itself mentions solidarity and cooperation among countries of the hemisphere. But I think that we have forgotten these very principles. The mechanisms are there, the instruments are there, the technical and specialized bodies are there. The intra-American jurisprudence is there."
The election for OAS Secretary General is scheduled to take place on March 20. Espinosa will be facing two candidates - Peru's ambassador to the United States Hugo de Zela and Secretary General Luis Almagro.
