II Ibero-American Forum on Public Service: challenges for Latin American public agenda

The "II Ibero-American Forum on Public Service" was organized in Uruguay with the objective of making a comprehensive analysis of the main challenges faced by the process to define the Ibero-American public agenda. 

In four working sessions, experts reviewed the Latin American civil service, focusing the analysis on the different experiences in their countries. Later, they addressed specific points such as the level of application of the Ibero-American Charter for the Public Service, the search for a Sustainable Civil Service Model in the Region, the Public Services, and the Sustainable Development Objectives. 

In his statement, Gregorio Montero, General Secretary of the Latin American Center of Management for Development (CLAD, for its acronym in Spanish) presented the work's methodology for the development of the Forum, whose objective is to structure the frameworks of contents, discussion, and inputs for discussion and further conclusions. 

Montero explained, "This forum aims to be a complement to the contents that the working program defines so that each participating country may report the current status of the subjects referring to the public function, which inspire the principles of the Ibero-American Charter for the Public Function, signed in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, on June 26th and 27th of 2003". 

Pedro Guerra, CLAD Consultant for the drafting of the base document for the Forum, stated that in specific contexts, the needs and attributions have been complemented with "more or more demanding" requirements. 

Guerra stated, "Added to the permanent monitoring of the integrity, transparency, and policies aimed at preventing corruption in the different States, citizen movements in different countries have established the discussion about the empowerment of citizens and the legitimacy of their demands". 

Emil Garabot, from CAF's Direction of Institutional Development highlighted the importance of this type of cooperation alliances for the development of more and better state capacities, and referred to CLAD as a strategic ally. He explained, "We share common values in the search to strengthen and improve the quality of public institutions in our region". 

Before closing, the delegates made a general balance of the different experiences of public service entities en each country in a participative workshop which presented the conclusions and recommendations to make citizen services more efficient throughout the region. They coincided on the need to review the evolution and mandate that public services of the different countries of Ibero-America have adopted since its creation. 

The  "II Ibero-American Forum on Public Service" included the participation of representatives of the Ministries of Public Management of the governments of Spain, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Honduras, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Argentina, Costa Rica, and Peru.

The opening ceremony also included the participation of Alberto Raúl Scavarellli, Director of the Public Service National Office and representative of the Uruguayan Government before the Governing Board of CLAD.