Civil Society Statement
Ending Exclusion and Eradicating Poverty

Declaration and Recommendations of the Civil Society
Regional Forum on Poverty and Development,
Santa Cruz, Bolivia, March 16-18, 2000

     Representing more than 100 non-governmental organisations (NGOs), members of different networks and associations from 13 countries of the Latin American region.

     Meeting in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, from March 16-18, 2000, brought together by the International Council on Social Welfare (ICSW), la Asociación Latinoamericana de Oragnizaciones de Promoción (ALOP), el Programa de Coordinación en Salud Integral (PROCOSI) and el Centro de Estudios para el Desarrollo Laboral y Agrario (CEDLA), with the objective of following up on the implementation of the agreements reached at the World Summit for Social Development in 1995 and presenting new recommendations on poverty, employment and social integration to the Regional Meeting of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) which will take place in Santiago, Chile, from May 15-17, 2000 and the UN Special Session, which will be held in Geneva in June 2000.

     Conscious of the growing inequality and socioeconomic exclusion for the majority of citizens of our region, and the importance of our participation as civil society organizations, with our governments and international agencies, in the implementation and evaluation of international, regional, national and local policies to achieve fair and sustainable social development.

     We recommend to Civil Society, to Governments and to International Organizations:

An Enabling Environment:

1. Ensure the restriction of excessive financial speculation with the introduction of international financial regulatory frameworks, such as the Tobin tax.

2. Advocate for effective and fair national taxation systems to generate resources for social development to be agreed by 2001, when the United Nations Conference on Financing for Development meets.

3. Promote reform of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) so that it can exercise leadership and act to benefit all countries, not just the rich. Ensure better interaction between ECOSOC and the UN Regional Commissions and other sub-regional intergovernmental bodies, including the Bretton Woods institutions.

4. Formulate and endorse just and transparent trade agreements to benefit developing countries, which include social and environmental clauses under the supervision of the UN.

5. Seek the ratification of the International Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Ensure that support is given to the adoption of the Optional Protocol of the CESCR at the session of the Commission of Human Rights that will be held in Geneva from March 20 – April 28, 2000. This Protocol puts forward the rights of individuals or groups to present claims of non-fulfillment of the Agreement, as recommended by the World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna. Ensure that this Optional Protocol is implemented by 2003.

6. Promote peace, respect for law, strengthening of civil society and fighting corruption as necessary conditions for social development.

Poverty Eradication:

7. Implement integrated national plans for human development, equity and alleviation of poverty, with the aim of halving the number of people in extreme poverty and reversing the trend towards greater inequality in the region by 2015. Ensure that these plans include the participation of civil society.

8. Set targets to achieve universal access to quality primary education by 2005 and to secondary education by 2010.

9. Promote the decentralization of national plans for human development and fighting poverty to the local level, to increase the participation of citizens in their development and implementation by 2005.

Productive Employment:

10. Ratify immediately ILO Convention 138 on the eradication of child labour.

11. Ratify the ILO Conventions referring to the core labour standards by 2002.

12. Promote micro-enterprise, particularly in rural areas, including the generation of productive employment and local economic development, and the financing of community groups and civil society organizations.

13. Formulate and promote universal social protection policies by 2015.

Social Integration:

14. Design and promote special mechanisms to increase the participation of women in society, ensuring fair access to land, employment and education.

15. Implement specific plans to combat all forms of discrimination in employment, land access and education by 2002.

16. Ratify immediately UN Convention 169 and the UN Universal Declaration on Human Rights and the OAS (Organisation of American States) American Declaration on Indigenous Rights and promulgate corresponding national policies.