Meeting of the Multilateral Initiative of Education for Human Development, (IMEDH), Panama, February 8-11, 2011

As part of the Multilateral Initiative of Education for Human Development (IMEDH), annual planning meeting, GFDD took an active role in the planning of this year’s events and activities. 

IMEDH, which was launched and signed in June 2010 during Virtual Educa in Santo Domingo, was created to promote the development of education from an innovative and inclusive standpoint with a high social impact on LAC in efforts to help improve human
development in the Region.  To avoid duplication of efforts, IMEDH operates with programs and projects in a jointly coordinated system and provides a multilateral working space conducive for the management of grants and donations obtained from strategic alliances for the execution of priority initiatives.

IMEDH’s technical secretariat is located in the office of the OAS in Panama, whose representative is also its technical coordinator. The executive
headquarters is housed at the General Secretariat/OAS in Washington, DC and its executive coordinator is the Director of the Department of Human Development, Education and Culture of the OAS.

Participants in the meeting were members of the Executive Board: Marie Levens, Director, Department of Human Development, Education and Culture, OAS; Ambassador Abigail Castro de Perez, OAS Representative, Panama; Nelly Gochicoa, Senior Specialist for Latin American Cooperation,
DDHEC, OEA; Jose Maria Anton, Secretary General, Virtual Educa; Alfredo Jimenez, Technical Coordinator, Latin American Parliament; Gustavo Garcia de Paredes, Rector, University of Panama and President,  Association of Latin American Universities, UDUAL; Asuncion Sanz, Director, Washington, DC Office, GFDD; and special guests: Dr. Enrique Lau Cortes, Director General University Planning and Evaluation, University of Panama and Delano Chan, External Consultant, DDHEC, OEA:

All present agreed to:

• The creation of a Common Space of Virtual Higher Education associated to the Institute of Higher Education for the Americas (INEAM for its initials in Spanish). The Virtual Campus of the Americas (UDUAL/OAS) is designed provide a platform for universities and colleges (from now on known as inclusive universities) which have been unable to offer their students on line graduate courses and programs;
• In preparation for the agreement among SECC/SICA/OAS to declare 2011 the Year of the Inter American Culture and Year of the Central American Culture, IMEDH will request all the above institutions and the Latin American Parliament to follow Mexico’s example to include a Cultural Evaluation of each and every development project;
• Progress was reported on the negotiation with IADB for funding of the “Teachers for a Digital
  Era” program. The outputs of the preliminary report will be presented in Virtual Educa Mexico in June 2011.
• The establishment of a Workshop/conference “First Meeting on Societies of Knowledge of LAC”  to take place in Panama this October with the purpose of facilitating the transition of Cities of Knowledge into development components.
• This will involve bringing together the
  input of research centers, the private sector and governmental institutions.  The results of this meeting will be compiled in a “White Book of Latin American Cities of Knowledge” and presented at the next Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia, April 2012.
• The Latin American Parliament is working on the Latin American legal framework that will describe the role of Cities of Knowledge.
• The creation of an Institute
  of Vocational Training
• The purpose of this Institute is to establish a network of existing regional centers of employment and lifelong learning (L3). Among its goals will be the promotion of equity and inclusiveness, the promotion of public awareness of this role and services and its available resources to the mostly disadvantaged groups.