To address this problem, the Carter Center-sponsored Andean-U.S. Dialogue Forum created a working group of media professionals to promote a deeper understanding of the role of the media in inter-country relations.

“These meetings have brought together journalists and media professionals with very different perspectives,” said Dr. Jennifer McCoy, director of the Carter Center’s Americas Program, “We’ve had enriching debates and developed an awareness of the need for improved media coverage.”

The working group provides an informal space for media professionals to share specific challenges they face in their own countries, analyze media coverage, and discuss ways to advance professional reporting practices.

Members from Colombia, Venezuela, and the United States met in June 2011 at The Carter Center for their fourth meeting. Hear from participants about the group’s impact.

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“Many of these countries have tensions with each other at the governmental level on issues such as climate change, trade, trafficking of illegal drugs, and definitions of democracy,” said Jennifer McCoy, director of The Carter Center’s Americas Program. “The idea was for citizens to come together and speak in an open manner, not constrained by diplomatic niceties. The result of those frank discussions is this report.”

Listen to Jennifer McCoy, director of the Carter Center’s Americas Program, discuss the challenges of developing the common agenda.

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The Andean-U.S. Dialogue Forum is sponsored by The Carter Center and International IDEA to improve understanding and remove misperceptions among the six countries. Members include leaders of civic organizations, social movements, academic institutions, media organizations, the military, the private sector, parliaments, and former government officials.

The group found that the top priority for a common agenda is greater respect and mutual understanding among the countries. The report also identifies the urgent need to “de-militarize” and “de-narcotize” relations. Included in the report are analyses of the ties among the countries, snapshots of the internal dynamics of change inside each country, and capsule case studies of some of the policy innovations that could be shared from south to north.

Listen to Maryclen Stelling de Macareño, participant from Venezuela, explain what she feels is the role of forum members.

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Other key recommendations include:
•Promote inclusive trade and investment to include vulnerable and marginalized populations and to comply with environmental and intercultural standards.

•Approach the climate-change debate as an opportunity to diversify agendas.

•Attend to the high demand for personal security, but broaden the cooperation agenda beyond drugs to transnational organized crime, including trafficking of arms, people, and contraband, and laundering of money.

•Analyze the growing concentration of ownership in the media sector, the political role of the media, and the consequences this has for pluralism in the media.

“Our contribution has been to analyze these common problems with objectiveness and from a multi-sectoral view,” said Kristen Sample, International IDEA’s head of mission for the Andean region.  “And because our members have access to their governments, we have channels of communication going in both directions to learn about government plans and also to give ideas to the governments. In this way, we hope to make an impact.”

Read full reports in English (PDF) or Español (PDF) or visit www.idea.int.

Learn more about the Andean-U.S. Dialogue Forum >

The Second Meeting of the Andean-U.S. Dialogue Forum was held in Lima, Peru on June 1-2, 2010. Here, a plenary session is held on day one.

Dr. Jennifer McCoy, director of the Carter Center’s Americas Program, and Kristen Sample, head of the Andean mission at International IDEA (www.idea.int), opened the proceedings and welcomed the participants on behalf of the forum’s coordinating organizations. Also addressing the forum was Ambassador Néstor Popolizio, Peru’s vice minister of Foreign Affairs. Ambassador Popolizio gave a warm welcome from Peru President Alan Garcia and extolled the benefits of the forum and the work of its members.

Representatives from each of the five Andean countries (Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia) and the United States updated the group on the current political, economic, and cultural environment of their respective nation. Forum members from each country reported on topics of transnational importance and engaged in spirited and thoughtful discussion on which items were most critical as the group moved toward a common agenda.

Members of the integrated development working group discuss projects for phase two of the forum.

Both days featured new working group sessions that were begun in the first plenary meeting in Atlanta in February. During the sessions, which covered areas like development, democracy, human rights, and media, topics for action were discussed and projects chosen for the second phase of the forum. International synergy was on full display as the merits and relative importance of the proposed projects were debated and approved.

Each working group presented results in a plenary session before closing at the end of the first day.

Spirits were high at the close of the meeting and a statement of common purpose was formally adopted by 23 Forum members from all six countries. The next immediate steps for the forum will be for pairs of U.S. members to undertake trips to each of the Andean countries in July and August to further understand the realities in these countries.  The third plenary meeting of the forum will be held this fall in Washington, D.C.

Read more about the Andean-U.S. Forum.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter addresses the group gathered at The Carter Center for the first Andean-U.S. Dialogue Forum as Jennifer McCoy, director of the Center's Americas Program, looks on.

The project is co-sponsored by The Carter Center and the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) and consists of a series of informal dialogues to provide crucial grounding, support, and reinforcement of diplomatic efforts through a civil society process. For the next 18 months, the group will form personal relationships as they learn and share proposals in dialogue sessions provided during trips to the United States and to the Andean region.

The group will emerge from this first session with next steps to address the critical issues of regional security, ideological divides, broken diplomatic relations, and other shared concerns.

Kristen Sample, head of mission for the Andean countries at International IDEA, asks a question of President Carter at the Andean-U.S. Dialogue Forum at The Carter Center.

Francisco Diez, Carter Center/IDEA consultant, explains the agenda and goals to the approximately 40 forum participants.