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O.A. De La Guardia Boyd: Address to Peace Summit 2023, Session III-B
Written by Dr. Osvaldo Adriano De La Guardia Boyd, Exec. Director, Central America Institute for Public Administration, Panama
Wednesday, May 3, 2023
Address to Peace Summit 2023
May 2-5, 2023
Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon, Co-Founder of the Universal Peace Federation, Your Excellencies, Honorable Ladies and Gentlemen, officials of the Universal Peace Federation, senior staff, special guests joining us at the 2023 Peace Summit. Today I have the opportunity to address you and make a small intervention, in my capacity as Executive Director of the Central American Institute of Public Administration (ICAP), a regional international organization that was created within the framework of the United Nations as a specialized body in Public Administration, to respond to the needs and promote the strengthening of human resources in Central America and the Caribbean.
ICAP has become a point of reference for promoting development and prosperity in the region, with the aim of training professionals with values such as excellence, critical thinking and empathy, who face and generate solutions to challenges and difficulties of Central American societies.
From my side, education is an essential element to build societies of peace. Today education faces challenges from the integrality of public policies, the use of technology and the generation of leaders, but mainly the formation of citizens beyond just professionals. We need citizen-professionals with a positive, analytical and transforming attitude who are the engine of development and well-being.
In this year 2023, ICAP celebrates 69 years of being at the service of the region, focusing as an institution that promotes, based on the improvement of public processes, the principles of peace for the development of this region, a region full of many divergences, but with an incomparable human warmth, which works for human development, progress, prosperity, equality and solidarity, so necessary nowadays.
The Institution’s mission has been the capacity to influence the modernization of public administrations, the strengthening of human resources and the promotion of integration processes for the construction of Central America as a region of peace, in which real security is prioritized, human rights are protected, and progress is made in the sustainable approach in public management toward a vision of development beyond merely economic horizons.
Today we live in an interconnected world of cycles, where our actions have an impact on the actions of others. This makes it clear to us that we must work together for a common good, such as global peace.
But what do we mean by peace? Peace is a word that is present in the speeches of many leaders and entities. It evokes a feeling of being well with the other, that is, it seeks human understanding.
Peace is a word that is constantly changing and that, regardless of cultural and language differences, is transversal to human values and principles.
It is important to understand that peace is not just the absence of conflict or the fear of violence. On the contrary, it is a task that States must carry out every day. Peace is related to the growth of the population’s income, with the implementation of sustainability policies, with the guarantee of a better quality of life for the communities and with the goal of an equitable distribution of resources.
Peace is part of global development and prosperity. When peace is the guiding light of a nation, a region or the world, the doors to cooperation and progress are opened, hand in hand with prosperity in the common objectives that we all share and for which we are gathered here in this event. Today we must work together for a more just, equitable, peaceful and prosperous world for all people.
In this activity we will have good experiences and gain the understanding necessary to promote and encourage the guarantee of peace, sustainable development and economic prosperity in all regions of the world.
In this sense, we seek to promote together gender equality, universal access to education, quality medical care, fair trade and access to clean water and clean energy. Today we are united by the vision of a world of peace where nations can exchange goods and services fairly, to continue to build more and better opportunities for the benefit of societies and, therefore, generate jobs and drive economic recovery.
In the international arena, armed conflicts can be avoided when governments spend the necessary resources investing in infrastructure, social action, science and technology, which allows us to exchange weapons for wisdom, tanks for schools and roads, and deaths for opportunity and prosperity.
This gives us the clarity that, with your support and the understanding that the promotion of peace has social and cultural benefits, we can work and continue to build this community.
To go to the Peace Summit 2023 Schedule page, click here.