Lima, April 30, 2008.- With the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding, the Andean Community (CAN) General Secretariat and the Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) opened the way today to collaboration on matters of childhood and adolescence, youth, gender, indigenous peoples and African descendents.  

The Secretary General of the Andean Community, Freddy Ehlers, and the Regional Director of UNICEF for Latin America and the Caribbean, Nils Kastberg, signed the memorandum at a ceremony attended by officials of the Andean organization concerned with the subject and UNICEF representatives. 

Nils Kastberg announced that the general outlines of the relationship have been established, as have some of the areas for collaboration between the two organizations, such as “indigenous, African descendent, adolescent development, and social investment matters and communication aspects.”

He explained that UNICEF’s Office in Peru will deepen contacts with the General Secretariat for immediate tasks, such as those involving communication, where we will have to study, among other things, how we can communicate better with adolescents in the region. “We will do the same thing with regard to indigenous and African descendent matters,” he pointed out.    

The UNICEF Director for Latin America and the Caribbean stated that one of the major challenges ahead is how to insert matters concerning adolescents and children into Andean national policy and expressed his hope that the CAN will provide its support for this task.  “The challenge is a huge one, --he explained-- if we consider, for example, the high levels of malnutrition that exist in the Andean region, where one out of every four children is losing capacities because we fail to reach them in time.”

Through this memorandum, the CAN General Secretariat and the UNICEF Regional Office agree to collaborate closely in the cited areas, as well as on environmental, educational and cultural development matters and on other social integration programs.

They further agree to define, by mutual agreement, in annual or biannual plans and in accordance with their respective programming, the projects to be implemented under the terms of the memorandum.