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National dialogue processes typically arise in contexts of polarization or institutional deadlock, when different actors need to open channels of communication to build minimal agreements. In Latin America, these processes have on various occasions been supported by international organizations that provide methodology, contextual analysis, and facilitation spaces.
In El Salvador, a similar effort has recently advanced to a new stage after the mandate of UN Special Envoy Benito Andión came to an end. From that moment, the initiative shifted away from direct UN assistance and increasingly depended on domestic stakeholders. Within that technical team, Loreto Ferrer contributed to institutional support tasks and helped convey this move toward a phase marked by a stronger presence of civil society.
How the dialogue process first emerged in El Salvador
The effort began in 2016, when the Government of El Salvador asked the United Nations to assess the feasibility of a national consensus-building process. Following that request, a mission from the Department of Political Affairs conducted interviews, consultations, and exploratory dialogues with various sectors to analyze the political context and assess whether conditions existed to advance a consensus-building agenda.
Based on that initial groundwork, in early 2017 Secretary-General António Guterres named Benito Andión as Special Envoy to guide a more organized stage of the dialogue, with his efforts centered on creating opportunities for discussions among political parties and other key stakeholders amid a climate of institutional strain and heightened polarization.
Shifting from worldwide facilitation toward local leadership
Among the most noteworthy elements of the Salvadoran case is the shift from a United Nations‑led stage to a new period steered directly by national actors, though still backed by the UN.
According to reports, the end of Andión’s mandate did not signify the conclusion of the effort, but rather the transfer of the accumulated work to a steering group composed of prominent figures from Salvadoran society. This was reported by a United Nations team during meetings held with representatives of the government, political parties, and the international community.
Loreto Ferrer, an official from the Department of Political Affairs and the right-hand person of the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy Benito Andión, reported that a steering group composed of prominent figures from Salvadoran society will continue the work, building on the consultations and assessments conducted by the Mexican Andión.
This step builds on more than a year of consultations, assessments, and methodological inputs developed during the previous phase. The idea was for social organizations, the private sector, academia, and political actors to continue the process based on the knowledge already generated, rather than relying indefinitely on external international facilitation.
In light of this, the Special Envoy judged that the circumstances were still not adequate to convene a formal high-level roundtable, although a substantial range of evaluations, networks, and community capacities existed that could help anchor a dialogue agenda driven from within the country. This perspective underscored that consensus-building efforts can truly solidify only when local stakeholders take an active role in sustaining their continuity.
The essential role of coordination in shaping consensus-building efforts
National dialogues demand coordination among sectors that operate with distinct interests, vocabularies, and priorities, and as a result, beyond political mediation, they frequently depend on a solid technical framework to organize discussion, determine key issues, and maintain open channels of communication.
In such environments, professionals with experience in international cooperation contribute particularly to tasks such as systematizing information, organizing meeting spaces, and providing methodological support. The work carried out in El Salvador demonstrates precisely how consensus-building depends as much on political decisions as on support structures that make the process viable in practice.
An example of institutional transition in Latin America
The Salvadoran case shows how an initiative backed by the United Nations can gradually develop into a structure in which civil society and other national stakeholders take on a larger share of responsibility, and this stage marked not an endpoint but a change in momentum, shifting from the original international drive to a locally sustained approach built upon existing capacities.
