ANNUAL REPORT TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY - 2003

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RECOMMENDATIONS

Over the 2000-2004 period, the Inter-American Children's Institute implemented a Strategic Plan, providing an operational vision to political entities and a management structure which encouraged fidelity to its institutional mission and fulfillment of the mandates of Summits, General Assemblies and Directing Councils.

This operational method was recognized by the General Secretariat and the Directing Council as being a highly efficient and effective one, but the Member States did not make this conviction felt at the Budget Administration Committee. While the IIN undertook a process of organic restructuring and attempted to implement Strategic Planning as recommended to all entities of the OAS, it was affected by unplanned cuts to both staff and operating budget. As a result, the search for overall balance disfavored those who, like the IIN, sought to connect mandates and priorities established by political bodies with the managerial capability of carrying them out.

Through its organic restructuring by Program, the rationalization of its operational expenses, and the modernization of its Administration with a connection to the Oracle system, the IIN prepared to design, execute and evaluate its Budget on the basis of Results, Services and Products generated by the institution. In fact, this management was evaluated positively thanks to its Results in obtaining Specific Funds and Counterpart Funds, the latter representing 60% of the IIN’s funding. In 2003, despite all this, cuts were made to the IIN’s operational funds originating from the Regular Fund and positions were eliminated. This poses a serious threat to the IIN’s capability of fulfilling mandates, operating based on a Strategic Plan, implementing a Budget based on Results, and successfully obtaining new external funds.

Therefore, the Office of the Director General of the IIN recommends that – based on the priority given to children by the Québec City Summit, the resolutions of the General Assembly (2003) regarding children and its consequences for the IIN (Res. AG/RES. 1951 (XXXIII-0/03), and the conclusions reached in the Audit conducted by “Tea Deloitte y Touch” – a strategy be developed to promote the creation of a new Strategic Plan for the 2005-2008 period. To this end, the appropriate budget from the Regular Fund should be sought, in order to ensure that the IIN can operate and meet its commitments, and to act as a counterpart to the external funds that the IIN has been ever-increasingly obtaining.