Central American and Carribean Regional Preparatory Meeting

 
The EastWest Institute, in partnership with the UNDP, convened its first regional preparatory meeting for the Global Conference on Preventive Action to be held in 2010. The meeting brought together 30 senior military and police experts, representatives from governments, the UN, OAS, UNDP (Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery), CARICOM (Caribbean Community and Common Market) and SICA (Sistema de la Integración Centroamericana) along with leading civil society organizations to gather different perspectives on the role of regional organizations in peace and security in Central America and the Caribbean. The session examined how regional solutions can play a stronger role in stabilizing conflict situations and facilitating some level of development to prevent incidents of violent conflict.

The participants recommended a reform process of regional organizations in order to develop their understanding of preventive action. This would include developing an inventory of previous successful actions, and capacity building to implement effective responses to threats and challenges faced in the region rather than reacting in the aftermath of violence. Participants also recommended greater cooperation on a regional basis between the different levels of governments and non-state actors through regular forums for dialogue. Participants urged official structures such as the OAS, SICA or CARRICOM to engage civil society in a more focused and institutionalized way in order to build a greater awareness of threats and challenges, and to develop multi-level responses in coordination with each other.
The group also worked through a concrete case study on preventive action on the current crisis in Honduras. The participants identified numerous possible scenarios from the current situation and proposed concrete responses that could be taken over the coming months by regional organizations, outside actors, including the different UN bodies, and civil society groups.
The final meeting report will detail the discussions and present the recommendations on the reform process and the Honduras case study outcomes.  The results of this meeting are part of the substantive preparations for the Global Conference on Preventive Action (2010).