Americas top leaders address pandemic, climate change, poverty at Los Angeles summit

BySam Ursu

Americas top leaders address pandemic, climate change, poverty at Los Angeles summit

From June 6 to June 10, 2022, the city of Los Angeles in California hosted the ninth triennial meeting of the Summit of the Americas (SOA). The summit is chaired by the Organization of American States (OAS) and was attended by 25 regional heads of state, including American President, Joe Biden.

Other attendees included representatives from development organizations such as the UNDP, the World Bank, the World Health Organization, the International Organization for Migration, the Pan-American Health Organization, the Caribbean Development Bank, the Development Bank of Latin America, the International Labour Organization, the Inter-American Development Bank, the Central American Bank for Economic Integration and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. Concurrently, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce hosted the “summit inside the summit” known as the CEO Summit of the Americas which leverages the power of the private sector to work towards a brighter future in the Americas.

Building a Sustainable, Resilient, and Equitable Future

The theme for this year’s SOA was “Building a Sustainable, Resilient, and Equitable Future,” and focused on various ways in which countries in the Americas can address the hemisphere’s most pressing issues including the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, and equitable access to opportunities.

During the keynote address on June 9, 2022, U.S. President Biden pledged to provide aggressive new leadership to combat economic woes and wide-scale emigration from Central and South America. However, the heads of states from the countries in Central America with the highest rates of emigration to the United States including Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, did not attend this year’s SOA.

Photo Credit: Ian Wagreich/U.S. Chamber of Commerce

President Biden also called on the attendees to establish concrete commitments to tackle poverty, violence, corruption, and climate change, saying that the Western Hemisphere could be the “most prosperous, most peaceful, secure region in the world.”

The Los Angeles Declaration

As part of the SOA 2022 theme, Biden also unveiled a document entitled “The Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection” that he hopes will be signed by all the countries in attendance as well as partner nations such as Spain and Canada. The proposed Declaration consists of four pillars: financial assistance to countries hosting migrants, new pathways for hiring foreign workers, increased regional cooperation on border protection, and a coordinated multilateral response to stem the record-high number of people crossing into the United States from Mexico. The representatives of 25 countries signed the Declaration at the end of the Summit.

Biden concluded his keynote speech by confirming that companies in the United States have pledged to invest $1.9 billion dollars in Central and South America, a campaign that will be spearheaded by U.S. Vice-President, Kamala Harris, who is the White House’s point person on migration and border issues. The White House also announced that it will invest $75 million over three years to support 300 civil society organizations across the hemisphere, $42 million to protect civic spaces in Central America and that it has formed a Global Partnership for Action on Gender-based Online Harassment and Abuse.

The first SOA was held in Miami, Florida, in 1994 and was hosted by U.S. President Bill Clinton, marking the first time that heads of state from across the Americas had an opportunity to meet face-to-face since 1967. Starting at that first SOA, the organizers created a Summits of the America Follow-up System (SISCA) to track the implementation of agreements made during the triennial summits. The last SOA, held in April 2018 in Peru, saw attendees sign the Lima Commitment, a series of mandates designed to combat corruption across the hemisphere.