Strategic Communication theme of the II workshop on

Sponsored by the Andean Development Corporation with the academic backing of Harvard University, the second workshop of the regional program on "Governance and Consensus Building" began this Friday in Hotel Europa on the theme "Strategic Communication."

The first module on "Governance and Consensus Building" was given at the beginning of this year. In the coming weeks, the third module on "Leadership and Persuasion" will be held to close the three parts of this program.

The program is designed to provide social actors with a series of instruments and tools on negotiation, strategic communication and leadership that increase their efficiency in consensus building and generate value in the exchanges that necessarily take place between sectors of society.

The modules take the form of face-to-face workshops with dynamics aimed at applying the new tools, in practice, to the everyday problems that leaders have to deal with at all levels of the public administration and the institutions of civil society. The seminars have two versions, one for national institutions, and another for local and departmental institutions.

The CAF initiative is intended to complement the actions taken to strengthen governance in the countries of the region. The series of courses will be repeated later in other Andean countries.

The program is developed jointly by the CAF department of governance and technical cooperation and the Cambridge International Consulting firm, in three key areas: negotiation, strategic communication, and leadership and persuasion, which are pillars of the capacity of the actors to exert a strategic influence through their work as leaders of society, reducing levels of confrontation and building consensus on the different views that each sector contributes to national life.

In the area of negotiation, the program uses the model developed by Harvard University. This is a practical model of proven effectiveness which has been used internationally, especially in Latin America. The leadership model is derived from new developments that deal directly with new challenges, where democratic participation is an urgent need. Since these processes take place between persons and institutions, strategic communication is a critical area, and the program includes new and practical tools to achieve efficient communication.

This program is not limited to formal presentations but also includes follow-up activities in which participants adapt the application of the tools learned in each workshop to real-life processes.

Cambridge International Consulting has focused its research and practice on the generation of influence and strategic power. The firm is formed by well-known professionals from Latin America who are familiar with the regional situation and have used similar processes in very varied contexts of public interest.

The program is integrated into CAF's field of action of governance and is supplemented by other programs being executed in the region, including project financing, training, technical assistance, and orientation of leaders and their teams in national and municipal governments.

The Corporation has formed strategic associations with prestigious international institutions such as George Washington University with the Governance and Democratic Sustainability Program; the Organization of American States through the Inter-American Agency for Cooperation and Development (IACD) with the Integrated Program for Municipal Development in the Andean Region; Cambridge International Consulting (CIC) with the Tools for Governance and Consensus-Building Program; and the IDEA Foundation of Bolivia with the Leadership Program for Transformation: Youth Training with vision of country and democratic values.