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FM AMCONSUL MONTERREY
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INFO RUEHME/AMEMBASSY MEXICO PRIORITY 4260
RUEHXC/ALL US CONSULATES IN MEXICO COLLECTIVE
RUEHWH/WESTERN HEMISPHERIC AFFAIRS DIPL POSTS
RUEHMC/AMCONSUL MONTERREY 8755

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 MONTERREY 000496 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KPAO PREL PGOV SOCI ECON MX
SUBJECT: MONTERREY CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS WHA POSITIVE AGENDA 
 
MONTERREY 00000496  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
¶1. Summary: On October 15-17, a conference in Monterrey 
entitled, `Philanthropy and the Non-Profit Sector - The Road to 
Developing Multinational Strategic Alliances,' highlighted the 
USG positive agenda for Latin America.  WHA PDAS Kelly, the 
keynote speaker, outlined USG efforts to strengthen civil 
society and promote social justice in the hemisphere. 
Co-organized by post and the Mexico Chapter of the National 
Council for Community and Education Partnerships (NCCEP), the 
conference brought together over 500 Mexican and American 
leaders of business, foundations, civil society organizations 
and government to form partnerships to improve education, health 
care and economic opportunity.  Monterrey Consul General Bruce 
Williamson spoke at the October 17 closing session.  The event 
received wide TV, radio and print media coverage.  Ultimately, 
the measure of the conference's success will be the degree to 
which it leads to effective follow-up projects; to this end, 
post hosted an October 28 luncheon for NCCEP's President with 
business executives to discuss ways to keep the momentum going. 
End Summary. 
 
 
 
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FOCUS ON IMPROVING PHILANTHROPY'S PROSPECTS 
 
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¶2. The conference's primary focus was to explore, in the Mexican 
context, how philanthropy and cooperation among non-profits, 
business and government could improve health care, education and 
economic opportunity.  A large part of the discussion was about 
encouraging a policy framework within which NGOs could flourish 
and corporations would have more incentive to engage in 
philanthropy.  Many of our contacts lament that the Mexican NGO 
community is far from as robust as it could be.  They say 
burdensome government regulations make it more difficult than it 
should be to establish an NGO, and add that Mexican corporations 
are often hesitant to give because they doubt the competence of 
many Mexican NGO's and worry their money will not be used 
properly. 
 
 
 
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PARTICIPANTS AND SPONSORS 
 
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¶3. NCCEP-Mexico, the main conference organizer, is an NGO 
dedicated to developing and strengthening partnerships in low 
income communities, among the private sector, educational and 
philanthropic institutions and government in order to help 
improve public education, increase students' academic 
achievement, and increase low-income students' access to higher 
education.  Conference participants included Mexican and 
American corporate CEOs, presidents of foundations, policy 
makers, local and national NGOs, and state and federal 
government representatives.  The government of Mexico was 
represented by the ministries of education, health, social 
development and foreign relations.  Over 65 sponsors from both 
Mexico and the U.S supported the event, including Microsoft, 
Mexico's leading coca cola bottler and food company Femsa, the 
U.S. supermarket chain HEB, Monterrey's flagship corporation 
CEMEX, the Washington Center, and Dartmouth and Harvard 
Universities. 
 
 
 
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PDAS KELLY: THE POSITIVE AGENDA 
 
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¶4. PDAS Kelly's remarks focused on how Americans and Mexicans, 
both in and outside of government, could work together to build 
a more democratic and prosperous hemisphere.  He set the theme 
of the conference - creating partnerships between government, 
business, foundations and community organizations to improve 
lives and access to opportunity - within the framework of the 
positive agenda.  He highlighted this message by describing 
three key initiatives in which the U.S. and Mexico are partners: 
the Pathways to Prosperity in the Americas Initiative, the 
Merida Initiative, and the Summit of the Americas. 
 
MONTERREY 00000496  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
 
 
 
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HEALTH: PARTNERSHIPS TO SOLVE PROBLEMS 
 
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¶5. The conference presentations on health emphasized that the 
enormity of social and health issues in Mexico make it difficult 
for just one sector working alone to make progress.  The main 
message of these sessions was that to implement successful 
public health programs, NGOs, corporations, and government must 
collaborate.  Experts from various health fields presented 
several examples of public-private partnerships that combat 
major health problems in Mexico.  Nancy Alvey, Director/Team 
Leader, Health Program USAID/Mexico, told of how, with USAID 
support, a National Business Council on AIDS (CONAES) had been 
launched to reduce HIV/AIDS-related stigma and discrimination in 
the workplace.  The spread of HIV/AIDS in Mexico is greatly 
exacerbated by such stigma and discrimination, which acts as a 
barrier to prevention, testing, and treatment.  By using media 
effectively and involving key opinion leaders, the project has 
dramatically raised public awareness of HIV-related stigma while 
giving credit to those companies that dedicate resources to 
reduce it. CONAES has affected 150,000 Mexican workers, and an 
estimated 560,000 family members.  It includes 25 member 
companies committed to eradicating HIV-related discrimination. 
 
 
 
¶6. Another example that was presented of a successful 
public-private partnership that is improving human health is the 
HEB-run program `Partnerships with Food Banks,' a collaboration 
with Caritas, a Catholic humanitarian organization, to provide 
food to low-income populations.  This program targets 9 cities 
and reaches 350,000 people and 1,250 institutions by 
coordinating food distribution between donors and recipients. 
During this session ways to form partnerships that support 
social assistance programs were presented and best practices 
used on both sides of the border were compared. 
 
 
 
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EDUCATION: THE GLOBAL CLASSROOM 
 
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¶7. Educational partnership, a main focus of NCCEP's work,   was 
a recurrent theme during the conference.  The need for 
collaborative programs to improve education in Mexico was 
presented, as well as the idea of `globalizing' the classroom, 
by improving language instruction, stimulating intercultural 
understanding, and providing educational opportunities for 
exchange programs.  Cross-border alignment of curriculum, higher 
education standards, and the strengthening of bilateral 
educational agreements were topics explored by panel speakers. 
The partnership between the American Institute of Monterrey, the 
Ministry of Education of Nuevo Leon, the City of San Pedro, 
Microsoft, and AXTEL, a major Mexican telecommunications 
company, was featured as a model to be replicated by conference 
participants.  Their `Escuela de Clase Mundial' project provides 
public elementary schools in San Pedro with infrastructure, 
technology, and best teaching and learning practices to improve 
the educational achievements of its students.  The ultimate goal 
of this program, which has been recognized for its success, is 
to raise the skills of students, particularity in math and 
Spanish, to levels of global competitiveness. 
 
 
 
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ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND CORPORATE PHILANTHROPY 
 
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¶8. Conference economic development sessions focused on 
partnerships to promote social justice through training and 
assistance programs, and to encourage corporations to 
demonstrate social responsibility in their communities.  This 
programming helped participants develop strategies for their own 
 
MONTERREY 00000496  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
organizations and promoted collaborations between the NGO, 
corporate, and government sectors.  An example of corporate 
responsibility in action was presented by representatives from 
the CEMEX corporation, a worldwide producer of cement and 
aggregates, and one of Mexico's largest companies.  Their 
`Patrimony Today' program provides workplace, planning, and 
critical thinking training, and improves housing in low-income 
communities.  This model demonstrated how companies can 
contribute through philanthropy while maintaining their business 
model. 
 
 
 
¶9. Comment:  The measure of the conference's success will be 
whether the contacts made, best practices shared and ideas 
discussed will lead to additional projects that improve 
education, health care and economic opportunity in Mexico.  To 
this end, NCCEP is talking with several foundations and 
businesses, both Mexican and American, about forming an 
international funders' network whose membership would commit to 
regular funding of worthy projects in Mexico. Also, NCCEP plans 
to submit recommendations to the Mexican government on policy 
changes that would encourage philanthropy and bolster charitable 
NGOs.  Post will also follow-up with NCCEP and other key 
contacts from the conference to explore projects in which the 
consulate can participate.  End Comment. 
WILLIAMSON