- 20 - AG/RES. 1981 (XXXIV-O/04) STRENGTHENING MECHANISMS FOR POLICY DIALOGUE FOR INTEGRAL DEVELOPMENT (Adopted at the fourth plenary session, held on June 8, 2004) THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY, CONSIDERING: That, in the Declaration of Nuevo León of the Special Summit of the Americas, the Heads of State and Government recognized the urgent need for the Organization of American States to strengthen mechanisms for combating poverty, such as the Inter-American Council for Integral Development (CIDI); That, at the Third Summit of the Americas, held in Quebec City, the Heads of State and Government recognized the central role that the OAS plays in supporting the Summits Process. Further, they gave instructions for the strengthening and reform, where appropriate, of the Organization’s institutional and financial mechanisms for supporting the Summits of the Americas process with regard to technical secretariat and support functions for ministerial and sectoral meetings on issues of import to the Organization; That Article 31 of the OAS Charter establishes that inter-American cooperation for integral development is the common and joint responsibility of member states, within the framework of the democratic principles and the institutions of the inter-American system; That the 1993 Protocol of Managua created CIDI in order to make OAS technical cooperation an effective and efficient tool to assist member states in their efforts to achieve integral development and eradicate poverty; That sectoral meetings at the ministerial level and meetings of the inter-American committees within the framework of CIDI have generated great dynamism in the follow-up of the Summit of the Americas; and That partnership for development efforts, in which countries at different stages of development and with different levels of experience participate, take place at two strategic levels: the political level, intended to strengthen dialogue, agreements, and institutional mechanisms in order to identify priority areas to ensure targeted implementation, and the level of technical cooperation, aimed at implementing political decisions and priorities through cooperation activities, programs, and projects, within the framework of the Strategic Plan for Partnership for Development 2002-2005; and BEARING IN MIND: The urgent need to strengthen partnership for development and to invest cooperation mechanisms within the inter-American system with greater coherence, relying on cooperation from