PSG Supports Reinvention Strategies in the Dominican Republic

July 30, 2001

Last week Roberto Obando visited his home country: the Dominican Republic. While there Roberto had a busy week visiting with a number of officials as well as the Dominican's oldest newspaper, Listin Diario. A full page account of Roberto's visit was carried in the paper.

Specifically, during the week Roberto contacted the former Dominican President , Mr. Leonel Fernandez, who is currently head of the Global Foundation for Democracy and Development.

Roberto also talked to officials from international organizations that sponsor reform programs. The goal of these meetings were to convince the current administration headed by President Hipolito Mejia to include reinvention programs into his public policy agenda.

In his interview and the subsequent news account, Roberto proposed to establish a better judicial accountability system, as currently the Supreme Court is not exercising oversight over lower courts. Roberto also argued in favor of creating a performance measurement unit to be responsible for oversight the performance of all Dominican agencies and to help develop strategic plans with measurable outcomes aligned with the government's priorities.

Before attending graduate school at Duke's Sanford School, Roberto had played an influential role in staffing the reforms within the Dominican judicial system.