Civil Society and the Summit of the Americas

Civil Society and the IV Summit of the Americas

The Virtual Forum

The virtual forum, La Sociedad Civil Colaborando para Construir la Agenda Hemisférica, is the largest forum for civil society to contribute to the IV Summit of the Americas. Hosted by Partners of the Americas, Interamerican Democracy Network, FOCAL, and Corporación PARTICIPA, the virtual forum takes place from April 4th to May 6th. The goal of the forum is to create a shared agenda for the Americas that will be submitted to the 34 government leaders present at the summit in November.

The agenda that will be presented in November is divided into 8 categories - peace building, sustainable development, transparency and anti-corruption, labor, democracy and public participation, education, citizen participation, and indigenous peoples. Civil Society Organizations (CSO's) from each of these categories are encouraged to contribute to the discussion and debate by posting comments in online deliberative message boards. Each category has a message board and a moderating organization charged with posting weekly summaries and meeting the deadlines set in advance.

Those deadlines include one topic per week for each category:

Semana 1 - ¿Cuál es el problema?
Semana 2 - ¿Cómo podríamos enfrentar el problema?
Semana 3 - Desarrollo de la deliberación
Semana 4 - Opciones para enfrentar el problema
Semana 5 - Acuerdos y acciones

For more information, consult the website of the virtual forum: http://foroscumbres.redinter.org/