Bolivia played host to the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Evaluation Seminar in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Project News
The Millennium Development Goals Evaluation Seminar in Latin America and the Caribbean took place with the participation of delegations from Haiti, Guatemala, Brazil, Peru and Bolivia. The event was held at the Freedom Workshop and Conference Centre in the city of La Paz between 2 and 9 December 2012.
Over 50 persons participated in the seminar, sharing their experiences and thoughts, as well as the characteristic culture of each of these countries. The language barrier proved to pose no problem with the help of human and technical resources providing interpreting services in Spanish, French, Portuguese, Haitian creole and Quechua.
During the seminar week, each delegation presented their conclusions and proposals drawn up on the basis of a thoroughly participative process in spaces for dialogue and reflection in their respective countries. The participants in that process included persons living in poverty and extreme poverty, university students and representatives from institutions with a commitment to dignity and human rights. The seminar also served to prepare a joint in-depth analysis on the MDGs on maternal health and quality of life, access to education, decent work and, cutting across these three areas, gender equality.
’The aim of this event is to strengthen ties, build knowledge and draw up proposals. It’s so that our voices can be heard. We have to get through to the authorities and bring about real change’ said Xavier Godinot, project coordinator at ATD Fourth World.
The aim of the seminar is to prepare submissions with an eye on the International Seminar on the Millennium Development Goals Evaluation Process to be held in New York in 2013. It is hoped that proposals will serve to influence the post-2015 development agenda, currently under discussion, and to be further discussed at the high-level UN summit scheduled for the end of September 2013.
ATD Fourth World Bolivia was responsible for organising this first seminar in Latin America, with the assistance of the United National Development Programme (UNDP) in Bolivia.