Developments and shortfalls in fulfilling commitments undertaken at the Summits

In the countries of the region, a host of activities are carried out by the government and civil society aimed at implementing the initiatives and changes set forth in the mandates adopted at the Summits.

Many civil society organisations focus their activities on following up and monitoring Summit commitments, particularly in regards to access to information and preventing, detecting and sanctioning acts of corruption.

At the regional level, activities to follow up on the commitments undertaken at the Summits have been carried out. Major developments have been made with respect to the Inter-American Convention against Corruption and activities relating to the latter instrument's Follow-up Mechanism, in which Transparency International (TI) has been spearheading the involvement of civil society organisations in the fight against corruption (click here for details).

Even though progress has been made in the area, a long road remains ahead. The following are some of the shortfalls detected by TI in regards to compliance with the commitments undertaken at the Summits:

1. Inconsistent and still underdeveloped national initiatives in the area of transparency and the fight against corruption. This is especially true in the case of access to information.
2. Little formal recognition of civil society's participation at OAS meetings -and at the Summits themselves- in the area of transparency and the fight against corruption.
3. Insufficient support for initiatives geared towards ensuring ethics officials and civil society organisations meet and work together.
4. Modest influence on and ability to participate in the national public policy decision-making process in the areas of transparency and preventing, detecting, monitoring and punishing acts of corruption.
5. Scant use of the instrument created to secure sworn statements of net worth from public officials, and numerous shortcomings in the provision of training, adherence to procedures and systems for enforcing, verifying, publishing and evaluating the tool.

• View the Report of the Summit of the Americas Secretariat on its progress and challenges