Follow-up strategy for Civil Society organizations
for the Implementation of the
Quebec Plan of Action

Project Objective:

The objective of this 34-month strategy to follow-up and support the implementation of the Quebec City Plan of Action, focusing specifically on themes related to the strengthening of democracy. This will be achieved by increasing and strengthening citizen participation via a network of civil society organizations (CSOs) that will design and apply follow-up mechanisms at the national level. The results of this follow-up will be shared with national populations and will also be used to influence government policies at the national, regional and hemispheric level.

Through the application of a monitoring instrument – a questionnaire devised based on related indicators – this initiative will provide CSOs with updated information about the current success of the implementation of five themes drawn from the Plan of Action. The selected themes include:

1) Strengthening of local governments and decentralization;

2) Right of access to information

3) Freedom of expression and opinion

4) Judicial reform and access to justice

5) Strengthening of civil society participation in national and hemispheric processes

Project Implementation:

The implementation of this strategy is made up of three components: follow-up, diffusion of findings and Summit-related information, and an advocacy strategy to influence government policies. These three components will be completed simultaneously at the national level, and later carried out at the regional and hemispheric levels.

The three components of the strategy are described below, which will be carried out in parallel at the national level:

The Follow-up component consists of the application of the indicators for each of the 5 chosen themes in each country. The methodological guide that has been designed contains questions related to contextual information and additional indicators that will permit each of the countries to collect the data required to evaluate implementation to date. The indicators will permit the collection of information related to the normative/legal state, as well as the reality of the situation – ie. how changes have affected things in practice. With the results obtained the team in each country will produce a report that incorporates proposals and recommendations to improve the level of implementation.

The diffusion portion of the strategy will be initiated at the national level in parallel to the application of the indicators and will have distinct phases: present the strategy to relevant bodies within the country, sharing its objectives, reaches, themes and active organizations. Subsequently, the findings and recommendations will be presented, and press conferences, talks, meetings and workshops with interested citizens groups will be held. At these events participants will also be invited to formulate recommendations and proposals.

The advocacy component will be carried out in meetings during which government representatives will be presented with the relevant findings and proposals. It is hoped that governments will accept the recommendations that will allow them to advance in the implementation of summit initiatives. Coordination with the Ministry of Finance and the relevant government entities will be established.

Expected Project Results:

· Mechanisms of follow-up, diffusion and advocacy designed and executed by civil society that will increase the visibility of citizen participation in the Summit of the Americas process.

· Twenty-one national-level reports produced in two distinct periods: one set after the first application of the follow-up instrument and another set 18 months later, to provide an indication of the progress made during this period.

· Based on the national reports, 8 regional reports will be produced – 4 after the first application of the instrument and 4 more after the second application.

· Two hemispheric reports will be produced corresponding to the two applications of the follow-up instrument

· Diffusion activities at the national, regional and hemispheric levels.

· A citizenry informed about the level of fulfillment of the Québec City Plan of Action in the five proposed themes.

· National Coordinators, specialized civil society organizations, networks and civil society organizations trained in strategies of follow-up, diffusion and advocacy, as well as strengthened as a national network.

· Strengthening of the regional and national network of CSOs linked to the Summit process.

· Completion of an international seminar.

· Completion and distribution of the final publication of the results of the process, with proposals and recommendations from civil society to governments and regional and hemispheric inter-governmental organizations for the next Summit.

We are confident that this project, and the resulting information – which seeks to not only review the regulatory frameworks in place, but to capture actual practices and examine the reality of the current situation “on the ground” – will be a useful contribution to the success of the Summit of the Americas process. It will concurrently reinforce civil society’s continued involvement in the design, implementation and evaluation of the policy making process at the national and regional level.