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Latin American Program in the News: "Tough Slog for Canada to Change OAS"

Eric L. Olson

Latin American Program Associate Director Eric L. Olson is quoted in this article about Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird's call for reforming the Organization of American States.

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"Too many mandates

The OAS operates by consensus, voting unanimously on which mandates the organization’s secretary general will pursue. However, few members are willing to risk offending a neighbour in the hemisphere over an issue that may not affect them directly, said the former diplomats and Latin America watchers. As a result, the organization regularly agrees to many mandates that draw resources from the secretariat but have little hope of accomplishing anything in the broader interest of the hemisphere.

“It’s death by a thousand paper cuts,” said Eric Olson, associate director of the Washington-based Wilson Center’s Latin America Program and a former senior specialist at the OAS.

“You can’t really fulfill this variety of mandates,” he said.

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Financial struggles

The United States and Canada contribute roughly 80 per cent of the OAS budget, but have only a single vote each in determining how the organization spends that money or whether other countries should pay more. As a result, the organization hasn’t had an increase to its budget in “decades, and it shows,” said Mr. Durand.

The long list of mandates pursued by the secretariat strains the organization’s budget, and some members are in arrears, said Mr. Olson."

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Read the full article here.

About the Author

Eric L. Olson

Eric L. Olson

Global Fellow;
Director of Policy and Strategic Initiatives, Seattle International Foundation
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Latin America Program

The Wilson Center’s prestigious Latin America Program provides non-partisan expertise to a broad community of decision makers in the United States and Latin America on critical policy issues facing the Hemisphere. The Program provides insightful and actionable research for policymakers, private sector leaders, journalists, and public intellectuals in the United States and Latin America. To bridge the gap between scholarship and policy action, it fosters new inquiry, sponsors high-level public and private meetings among multiple stakeholders, and explores policy options to improve outcomes for citizens throughout the Americas. Drawing on the Wilson Center’s strength as the nation’s key non-partisan policy forum, the Program serves as a trusted source of analysis and a vital point of contact between the worlds of scholarship and action.  Read more