The Inter-American Development Bank and the Organization of American States are organizing the forum on “Security and Development: Challenges in Latin America and the Caribbean.” The seminar will be held at the Andrés Bello auditorium in the Bank’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. on September 20.
The objective of the seminar is to examine the different threats to security and their relationship to development, including economic, social, political and hemispheric perspectives. Regional leaders and other experts from civil society, government, academia and multilateral organizations will explore ways to cooperate to reduce the vulnerability of the peoples of the region to these risks.
The seminar will have four discussion panels: economic, social, political and hemispheric security. The first part of the forum will examine economic volatilities as a factor of insecurity and the different policies that can mitigate this tendency. The social panel will cover the importance of social protection systems for the stability and development of Latin America and the Caribbean. The political security panel will emphasize the role of strong democratic institutions and their importance for security. Finally, the last panel will explore the definition and scope of hemispheric security within the framework of lessons learned from the attacks of September 11, 2001.
The Seminar will be inaugurated by, Inter-American Development Bank President Enrique V. Iglesias and César Gaviria, Secretary General of the Organization of American States.
Ambassador John Maisto, Special Assistant to the President of the United States, and Senior Director for Western Hemisphere Affairs National Security Council will be the keynote speaker of the event. Mr. Maisto’s speech will be "off the record." The media will not be allowed to use his name under any circumstances, nor quote anything he says.