The summitry process is struggling to design a governing structure to overcome the inherent tendency in multilateral diplomacy to produce unwieldy laundry lists of proposals. Now, the Office should be strengthened to allow it to function effectively as a responsible secretariat to an empowered senior executive committee. More generally, governments should continue to strengthen the OAS and its capacity to implement Summit initiatives. The enhanced senior executive committee and fortified OAS Office of Summit Follow Up should set as a primary goal the establishment of effective systems to monitor and evaluate implementation of Summit initiatives. In establishing feedback systems, summitry should enlist the talents of independent, objective experts, as well as forming joint public-private evaluation teams.
Serious evaluations require good data.
We recommend that the multilateral development banks build into relevant loans earmarked assistance for creating and maintaining data collection systems. The Banks should also promote harmonization of databases across countries to facilitate comparability studies. Only when it becomes possible to measure results will it be possible to assert with full confidence that Summit initiatives have attained their goals. Among its responsibilities, this enhanced senior executive committee, with support from a strengthened Office of Summit Follow Up, could review initiatives being prepared for Summit approval. This page is best viewed with a small font and Microsoft Explorer 4.0.