With over 30 representatives of ministries and public institutions with experience in the EUROsociAL Programme for Social Cohesion in Latin America, a coordination meeting was held at the Chilean International Cooperation Agency (AGCI) with authorities from this programme financed. The second phase of the European Union-financed programme, which will conclude in 2015, positions Chile as a regional strategic partner for the dissemination of best practices in public policies. 

The coordination meeting addressed the previous experience with Chile in the area of children, taxes, justice, educational reform, transparency, health, social development, immigrants, incarcerated persons, among other issues. 

The objective of the senatorial conference is to strengthen a shared Latin American vision of the challenges of social cohesion, and to exchange viewpoints and experiences to construct a common agenda. To do this, parliament members, experts and intellectuals involved in decision-making regarding public policies will participate. The conference will revolve around thematic axes which include: a fiscal compact for social cohesion, political reforms for quality of democracy, education as a social right, work and social policies, sustainable development, an agenda for women's equality, pluralism and multiculturalism, integration, and regional development. 

After its first phase from 2005 to 2010, this second phase of the EUROsociAL programme (2011-2015) lends continuity to the promotion of social cohesion and incorporates recommendations and orientations based on the lessons learnt in the previous phase to guarantee the linkage between experience exchange and social cohesion, thereby ensuring that the exchanges are not limited solely to sharing knowledge but instead become transformational learning experiences that materialise in action oriented towards changing public policy. Its thematic action areas are: decentralisation, education, public finance, justice, health, cross-cutting actions, social dialogue, employment, democratic institutions, social policies, citizen security and an intersectoral approach. 

At the close of the meeting Inma Zamora, Director of EUROsociAL, stated:  “I consider Chile a strategic partner because there is a commitment on the part of its government and institutions to social cohesion that inspires EUROsociAL, and this is one of the founding principles of the European Union. In addition, Chile has the AGCI as a model international cooperation agency in the southern hemisphere and one that organises the transfer of Chilean expertise, which is of great interest to other Latin American countries. As a programme, we are interested in mobilising best practices in the region”. 

Zamora also explained that the role of EUROsociAL is to be a facilitator by assisting in the coordination of institutions, and that this role has a multiplier effect on the impact of public policies. “This second phase of EUROsociAL faces the challenge of going from being a traditional social development programme to being a programme for peer-to-peer learning and supporting public policies. We also hope that in this process, the role of civil society is more active and that more and better public policies are incorporated”, said the maximum authority. 

For his part, Francesco Chiodi, Manager of the Social Area of EUROsociAL, expressed his thanks for the sectoral interventions and added: “It is encouraging to discover the richness of Chilean public policy and its support in the social area. We have found an enormous number of real and potential intersections between public institutions, and it is always positive to facilitate points of contact and find areas of complementarity and linkages. EUROsociAL is prepared to collaborate in processes that lead to improving policies, and we hope that European citizens understand the value and impact of EUROsociAL in Chile. Although this is not a development cooperation programme, it does deliver a compilation of best practices that strengthen each country through this window of interaction at the international level, and Chile can capitalise on the achievements it contributes”.