Chile adopts German-style online petitions

02.06.2015 – The gap between rich and poor in Latin America is widening. GIZ is working on behalf of the European Union for greater fairness and equality of opportunity.

Although South America has made progress in economic terms, the gap between rich and poor across the continent is widening and not all population groups are able to realise their rights. The ‘EUROsociAL’ cooperation programme, which is financed by the European Union (EU), works to achieve equal rights and equality of opportunity. More than 200 institutions and 150 ministries from a total of 19 Latin American countries are involved in the programme, and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH is coordinating the diverse array of projects and promoting the exchange of experience between the partners.

Each of the 22 current projects is linked to reforms by one or more Latin American governments in areas including justice, employment, regional development and social policy.

Those taking part in the programme not only benefit from direct dialogue between the Latin American partners but also have the opportunity for direct exchange with EU Member States. For example, Chile’s Special Committee on Probity and Transparency has learned about online petitions as a tool for citizen involvement from representatives of Germany’s data protection agency and the Petitions Committee of the German parliament in Berlin. In Sweden, experts from Chile and Mexico visited the parliament to learn about transparency and access to public information, while a Colombian delegation travelled to Germany and France to find out about regional development in those countries.

Social cohesion in Latin America and the EUROsociAL programme are one of the themes of the European Development Days (EDD) being held in Brussels on 3 and 4 June. GIZ is also involved in the ‘EUROsociAL: Euro-Latin American policy dialogue for social cohesion’ event.