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J.P. Vargas Céspedes: Address to Peace Summit 2023, Session III-B
Written by Dr. Jean Paul Vargas Céspedes, Director, Central American Integration System (2014-2018), Panama
Wednesday, May 3, 2023
Address to Peace Summit 2023
May 2-5, 2023
Excellencies, Honorable Ladies and Gentlemen. I feel honored by the opportunity to share with high-level and distinguished people in this Peace Summit. Today, we offer our efforts, thoughts, reflections and prayers to add to the construction of Peace. For this reason, I wish to highlight the valuable effort that UPF makes every day to build a world of peace, tolerance and interdependence. I want to especially acknowledge its co-founder, True Mother, Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon, for inspiring and continuing Dr. Moon’s legacy.
I come from the Central American region, a land full of old and new challenges, overwhelmed in the 70’s and 80’s by armed conflict. The lack of freedoms, economic opportunities and improvement in living conditions led our countries to be plagued by political and military violence. We are that Black Swan in the multiple pages of contemporary history, since the pacification process was achieved through the conviction and capacity of the actors themselves in building the bridges of dialogue and recognition, which cemented the foundations of the negotiation and reconciliation.
I come from a regional international organization, the Central American Institute of Public Administration, which, although it emerged in the 1950s, its development and growth was marked by the prevailing tensions of the second half of the 20th century. We have been and continue to be a fundamental foundation of the Central American integration process, which reappeared in the 90’s for the strengthening of peace in Central America.
The history of our integration process is always written as a draft. It is a history that is filled with blots and sometimes, why not say it, with a lack of conviction. But that does not mean we leave behind our highest aspiration: our utopian vision to make Central America a region of peace, freedom, democracy and development. The challenges that led us to armed conflict, more than 30 years ago, continue to be latent, with the grievance that much of the solidarity of international cooperation is non-existent.
However, at ICAP we believe in education and training for decision makers, such as senior technicians and officials of public administrations as a way of change toward, for some, a “utopia.” I make express reference to the term utopia, which means “imaginary and impossible,” because precisely each stone carved by the stonemasons who forged the foundations of the Central American integration process and the modernization of its States, has had on that stone the hands of those who bet on a dream, an aspiration, which, for many others, was something simply imaginary and impossible. It is the same dream and example that Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon teaches us over and over again; the words convince, and even more, an inspiring example touches our hearts.
History has always been shaped by those who dared to dream or imagine differently, because actions that were conceived as impossible yesterday are now a reality. ICAP has specialized in recent years in applied research that helps many of the region’s governments to generate information-based public policies. We faithfully believe in the value of public-private partnerships, and in advancing towards predictive public management that provides public value to each action of its institutions. Hence our projects and methodologies.
Navigating the seas of globalization and deglobalization requires the compass of utopia. It means over and over again making alive the words of the recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature (1946) Herman Hesse: “To achieve the possible, you have to try the impossible.” We live in the paradox of a world of contrasts, uncertainties and volatility, where changes are increasingly accelerated, hence the strategic value of interdependence.
In Central America, over the years we have learned the difficulties of building peace, but even more difficult is maintaining the conditions that promote and reproduce peace. After all, when the trail ends, that’s when the real road begins.
Disjunction beats at the heart of this crossroads in a Central America of old and new challenges where our efforts must continue directed towards the fight against poverty and inequality, the generation of opportunities for the most vulnerable sectors, as well as the strengthening of the conditions to ensure the full enjoyment of the rights of the Central American population. Also we are working towards the attraction of investment and a strategic insertion in a global world. This is the work of ICAP: the strengthening of public administrations and the modernization of States and their Central American integration process.
Our commitment is to strengthen the leadership of young people in the public sector, generate new policies and projects in climate change management, transform the region’s energy matrix towards more sustainable sources, improve public management capacity in territorial productive projects, promote initiatives for public-private alliances for the development of the States, and of course establish a solid and adequate program of knowledge management to the needs of the region. These have been ratified on multiple occasions by the ministers of the region, among whom more than 14 have master’s degrees and two have doctoral degrees, and in place is a continuous training process.
For some, our actions seem imperceptible, especially when we look at the historical journey of our region, but they are real and we are transforming the lives of Central Americans. This will not be left aside when we recap the lessons learned and the opportunities created in Central America.
“Nothing great has been done without passion,” Hegel affirmed in his era, recognizing that ideas cannot be imposed with force, but with the conviction of truth, dialogue and trust. There are ideas of ideas, but only those based on goodness and fidelity to shared and inspiring principles and values are the ones that break with preconceived paradigms, excite the dreamer, frown on the critic and represent how much remains to be done on the path of innovation and transformation. By the force of its fascination the gears of our reality move, bringing about the construction of a firm and lasting peace, with the capacity to reproduce itself and continue to excite coming and future generations.
We are the result of everything that happened before us, of everything that has passed us by. We are also the product of every idea that has influenced our existence. However, the answer to the question between the past, the present and the future, does not lie only between the weight of the decisions taken or not, but in the strength of the principles and the light of the convictions that drove our ancestors, guide us and will illuminate those who will take our place.
We live in times of disagreement due to radical positions; nothing is easier in social life than to oppose for the sake of opposition. Extreme positions destroy and do not build. These situations lead us to live in an artificial confusion, built to superimpose belonging with identity, whose only outcome is the creation of walls between an “us” and a “you.” Therefore, we have a firm agreement towards a Culture of Peace. This Summit is a historic step towards a more prosperous, tolerant and peaceful world. As an ICAP official and director of the Innovation Laboratory for Sustainable Development, who speaks from Central America and the Caribbean, we hope that the objectives of this Summit will come true and that each and every one of us will achieve the success and happiness desired by the organizers. Let us share it when we arrive at our places where we live.
Lastly, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the efforts of the Co-founder of UPF, Dr. Moon, for opening these spaces that allow us, the organizations represented here, and each one as individuals, to reflect on the importance of making our best efforts so that our work and responsibilities are always aimed at promoting a culture of peace leaders, peace families and peace societies, in order to sow the seeds that will soon germinate in a future of peace and development for all.
Thank you so much.
To go to the Peace Summit 2023 Schedule page, click here.