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II. FRAMEWORKSFOR IMPLEMENTINGTHEREGIONALAGENDA
ONPOPULATIONANDDEVELOPMENT
This section of the guide corresponds to chapter J of the Montevideo Consensus on Population and
Development, which refers to the frameworks needed for its adequate and effective implementation. The
issues considered in this chapter are strategic and indispensable for the implementation of the Consensus and
therefore require special treatment, as theycut across all the topicsdeveloped in themainbodyof theguide.
The chapter focuses on measures or actions that are deemed indispensable for the adequate and
effective implementation of the Montevideo Consensus on Population and Development in the region,
and they will require a clear decision and ongoing support and strengthening on the part of governments
over themedium and long terms. Generally speaking, themeasures considered refer to fivemain aspects.
One aspect that was considered of primary importance is the need for countries to have a permanent
institutional structure devoted to population and development issues from an integrated perspective that
goes beyond the traditional sectorized or “line-ministry” approach. Such a structure should include a
permanent and regularly functioning national mechanism for inter-ministerial and interagency
coordination, to include civil society organizations, consistently with themodalities and specific features
of each country.
Second, it identifies the need to strengthen sources of statistical information, with particular
attention to reinforcing official statistics and conventional sources of demographic information, giving
them the financial and technical sustainability needed to produce and process sociodemographic
information for countries and the region.
Third, the chapter highlights the need to strengthen regional education and training programmes
dealingwith population and development, to ensure financial support for existing programmes (at both the
regional and the country level), and the development of new sources consistent with specific demands,
taking advantage of the available technological advances, in order to guarantee the technical capacities that
countries need todealwith issues relating topopulation anddevelopment and to formulatepublicpolicies.
A fourth fundamental aspect is the need to create monitoring and accountability mechanisms, both
regional and national, as away of ensuring adequate progress in effective implementation of theMontevideo
Consensus on Population and Development. Those mechanisms must also be capable of encouraging active
participationon thepart of civil society.
A fifth aspect is that implementation of the priority measures will require assured financial
resources for putting theMontevideoConsensus on Population andDevelopment into effect, both through
international cooperation and through national budget allocations.
Apermanent institutional structure devoted topopulation anddevelopment issues
The need to define and implement an institutional structure for population and development
issues at the country level is set out in priority measure 99 of this chapter. It calls explicitly for
establishing and strengthening a permanent institutional structure as well as a mechanism for inter-
institutional coordination that includes organizations of civil society. Thismeasure addresses the concern
that the absence of a coordinating institutional structuremay imply partial or fragmented treatment of the
sociodemographic issues, in contrast to a comprehensive vision with a broad focus on population and
development. It is clear that the sectoral institutions by themselves have serious limitationswhen it comes
