In the year 1992 when celebrating the XI Summit of Presidents of Central America, the First Ladies of the Region established a Resolution that, between other things, proposed:

• "To Give all necessary support so that the Inter.-American Children´s Institute could carry out the program approved by its Directive Council and by the General Assembly of the OAS for the 90´s decade:
  
• "Inter.-American Plan of Action for Needed Children, which includes social and juridical matters, information matters as well as those matters relating with the civil records, vital statistics, the prevention of drug abuse and disabled childhood.

Those were the challenges at the end of the XX Century, were we could clearly foresee the importance of information as an instrument for the decision-making.

Most of these commitments were completed, as in the case of having Information Centers in almost all the countries of the Region. The Strategic Alliance between the First Ladies and the Inter-American Children´s Institute was effective.

But we enter into the XXI Century with 117 million children and adolescents (under 20 years old) living under poverty conditions. And that hurt us all, as persons, as governments and as specialized organisms we are. And although it is true that a lot of it has been done, we still have huge challenges for the near future.

The CEPAL Report (1999 – 2000) called "Social View of Latin America" inform us, that, as a matter of fact, from those 117 millions, 39 millions have under 5 years old and 43 millions have between 6 and 12 years old. So, in spite of the national efforts and the international cooperation to change this situation, we should have to meet again (as we did 10 years ago, and also last year in El Salvador), in order to strengthen this strategic alliance between the First Ladies of the Region and the Inter-American Children´s Institute, in order to help reduce this inequalities that affect so much all children. Therefore, strengthening our commitment as well as the government´s, the own children and adolescents commitment and all citizens´ commitments so that in the public agenda, the subject of child welfare and respect for children´s rights shall be in the place all democracies and state of law deserve.

But, how can we achieve a consistent and permanent progress in favor of childhood? How can we be sure that the policies and programs designed obtain the impact we want?

Once more, we believe that having a reliable and adequate information at the national level, and until we can generate a culture of information (not only taking into account an easy diagnosis or complaint to lead processes) is an essential working instrument in order to solve problems.

Some areas related to childhood have a long history in producing information, for example, those areas related to health and education. But, in general, in our countries, we could not achieve an integrated system of indicators which allow us to make the right decisions regarding the length period covered by the attention, the modality of this attention, the need of resources that should be assigned and during which period, in order to know that we do not suffer from the Penelope Syndrome (she undid at night what she knitted during the day).

This evaluation of information and of the benefits that could produce, if it is updated and has a continuity during a certain period, forms part of what governments and the civil society search in order to give effective answers to the social unbalances that, in a particular way, affect the children, and that hindered the development of the own country.

To incorporate the culture of information is a way of strengthening those institutions which protect childhood, and that if they continue improvising they will fall in the disbelief and they will not achieve an income-produce investment of human resources that represent the childhood in our countries.

Regarding this concept the information is the basis by which policies can be planned, and their impact can be measured when evaluating results. The National Systems of Childhood incorporate this system in order to comply on time with the requirements of children and adolescents.

Seeing this under the eye of the RIGHTS, the information helps to guaranty them. The Article 17th of the Meeting recognizes the importance of the production and information management for the promotion of the social, spiritual, and moral welfare and also to the physical and mental health of children. It is the right of the children to be duly informed and to teach them (Art. 29) respect for the human rights and for freedom. Only those societies that defend the main rights and those of their children, can teach them to respect the rights of the other persons. And in this game of strengthening the rights of the citizens and, in order to consolidate democracy, is that we should know the reality in which our children live in order to plan those actions that, from the point of view of the rigths, help them get out of the exclusion and margination.

The Inter-American Children´s Institute assumes in 1987 the commitment of developing the information area. The Center of Computerized Information is created and from it, in a progressive way, The Inter-American Program on Information for the Children and the Family (PIINFA) is also created.

The Institute discovers that there were no adequate information systems, according to the different needs of the children, in the region. So since then, the Inter-American Program starts to function as a service to the region: to promote the use of instruments that will enable them to identify experiencies and researches, to disseminated them between the persons who work with children and adolescents, and also to create a space for an overall information that will help them when talking about processes of favourable changes for the improvement of life conditions on children and adolescents.

Throughout this process and after 15 years, the Institute developed an Information Network on the Children and the Family (RIIN), which has approximately 60 Centers in 19 different countries, and also a publications network that at present is digitalized.

At the same time, the Institute helped to install, in several countries, the Information System for the Childhood (SIPI), which gives the organisms controlling the childhood information in order to control and evaluate the atenttion in their more different modalities for children and adolescents under risk conditions. The SIPI enables us that in some countries of the region we could monitor the processes of institutional discharges and the release from institutions, and also a progressive and extensive covering with preventive programs, which will be evaluated on detail.

Therefore, we should highlight, on the celebration of the Second Meeting of First Ladies, that the countries of the region (through You as well as your spokeswomen) have been doing a systematic promotion on the use of information systems.

The Meeting at San Salvador and the Final Declaration under the motto "Children with Rights, Countries with Democracy, ratified the commitment of technically working in pro of the childhood.

The invitation of the First Lady of Nicaragua, the effort done by its colleagues and the answer to the Convocation allow us to consolidate our commitment, to make an horizontal exchange of experiences and also to go forward as a regional union for the protection of children´s rights.

The Inter.-American Children´s Institute feels that thanks to your political will it could build a strong presence on the region, that only is important if enables to capitalize this in pro of the human resources (our children) and of the families of Central America which should strengthen, because without the family and without its values, a public policy on childhood can be very difficult to maintain.

In order to finish this report, I wan to highlight the role that has beginning to have the communication and information via electronic mail. Our task for the future is to put Internet at the service of development. This implies the availability of connecting us at a reasonable price and of a basic training in the management of tools in order to be used by more persons without taking into account age, sex, ethnic group or language.

The Institute itself, more and more, is becoming a service lender via Internet in order to create new spaces on such network so that children and adolescents themselves could defend their own rights.

Finally, we want to establish that the information and communication technologies will contribute to form more democratic and plural societies, that they have made a definite option in pro of the human rights as these are the rights of the children and also for the culture of peace.