“Social Policy, the civil society and the private sector united towards strengthening human development.” Dip. Andrés Bautista

Good afternoon to all of you.

Mr. Deputy Host; our moderator here today; and each of the international invited guests that are present today.

In reality, the theme is not about human rights, but human development; a theme that directly affects each of us personally, and particularly our countries, as well as our hemisphere.

It is a topic that we must be the sincerest possible because human development, as I listened to the Senator, is a topic we more or less coincide on.

A person who cannot count on enough food, that does not count on a state investment in health matters, of education, is a person that, in due time, will feel powerless, and they will reach anger and rage. The reality is the peace of that home branches towards the environment; towards the city, towards the country that person lives in; and in reality, the politicians, and the whole society, we must be sincere with these topics because a platform, such as this, is important to take advantage of so that we can unify; unify criteria in pursuit of working for each Latin American country and of the world. I believe that, according to the statistics of each country, there is some similarity in each of them, in terms of the basic problems that each citizen lives.

In our country, we belong to a Human Development Commission, and I would like to explain a little so you see how we work as legislators in pursuit of human development and that the millennium objectives are reached more or less while staying close to reality. The Human Development Commission was created in the first legislature in 2010; fruit of the constitution that was carried out in the country and the following article 217 was established:

The economic regime must be oriented towards the search of human development. In our country, there exists 42 commissions in the chamber of deputies; these were established based on the mission of each ministry; over there almost all of the commissions of congress follow up on each of the ministries, but we do not have a ministry of human development in the Dominican Republic, but since human development is transversal, we follow up on all public policies that impact people and those linked to objectives of sustainable development.

Each year priority and protected programs are approved in the budget law; of priority because they are linked to the national development strategy; this is a law that contains the goals of the country until 2030, as well as multiannual plan that is presented in the beginning of each negotiation in accordance with the organic budget law, the 44123-06; and they are protected since the article of the law manifests the obligation of these extensive funds are available.

These priority projects, such as the Calm Living program; each ministry of the Dominican Republic has this program, one way or another; but the Calm Living program, for example, the integral emergency service, support for the vulnerable population, attention to early childhood, maternal and infant services,  mental health, environmental risks, among others, are those priority projects that those ministries have, and as a commission of human development, we follow up on those projects and we provide a quarterly report, and on occasion, it is semi-annually.

In the Dominican Republic, since the governing party, the executive power also controls the legislative power, it is not possible to give a meticulous follow up on the data that we require; I believe it may be the same in other countries; but we understand that the way in which the resources are invested, that according to the follow up we have made has been in descending order throughout the years; well, we must talk gentlemen, colleagues, friends, that we must be sincere without pointing fingers to those executing the different governments of Latin America and of the world; and as I said in the beginning of this intervention, a person that does not have food, does not have health, is a person that does not have peace, and hence, that restlessness is transmitted and multiplied towards others; so I understand that this is the platform, this is one of the platforms that we must take advantage of to unite efforts, exchange ideas, in pursuit of human development in our countries, and hence, the world’s tranquility.

Thank you very much.