The programme can also be taken as evidence for the words of President of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), Sir Philip Craven, who last week spoke about the progress being made by the Movement in achieving "positive global change".

Four nations from the region - United States, Brazil, Cuba and Canada - finished in the top 20 on the medals table at London 2012, and a further six won medals.

As well as boosting improvements at grassroots levels, another aim of the programme will be to inspire more nations to feature on the medals table by Rio 2016. 

The programme is divided into three pillars, the first of these a foundation session run jointly with the IPC's development arm, the Agitos Foundation.

Following the success of a similar foundation workshop in the Dominican Republic in June, this will consist of workshops in multiple locations in the region starting in December and continuing until September 2014.

Each NPC is able to send up to two delegates, with a travel grant for one participant per each to be provided, with applications for the first workshop to be held in Bogota in December now open. 

In addition to the Agitos Foundation Sessions, the NPCs will also have up to $5,000 (£3,100/€3,600) in funding to purchase sporting equipment.

There will also be funding and opportunities to attend classification training programmes in collaboration with test events for the 2015 Parapan American Games to increase the number of international certified classifiers in the Americas and Caribbean.

For the first time in the history of the Parapan Am Games, Toronto 2015 will also provide a support grant to each participating NPC to contribute towards their travel costs for attending the Games.

Participants in the Agitos Foundation workshop in the Dominican Republic in June described as a "historic milestone" for the movement in  the region





Georg Schlachtenberger, director of the Agitos Foundation, explained the opportunities that the programme will provide.

"The next four years - with Toronto 2015 and the Rio 2016 Paralympics - present a huge opportunity for the Paralympic Movement to grow in size and scale in the Americas, especially in terms of participating countries and athletes at major events," he explained.

"The development programme is a great initiative to help achieve the goal of growing the movement in the Americas and the whole Paralympic Movement is grateful to Toronto 2015 for making this initiative happen.

"By making our NPC's stronger in the region, it will help increase participation and, in turn, performance at major events such as Toronto 2015."

This excitement, for both the programme and the Games, was echoed by Bal Gosal, Canada's Minister of State for Sport.

"Canada looks forward to welcoming the very best Para-athletes and coaches from the Americas and the Caribbean to this major sporting event," he said.

"Our Government is proud to support these Games and applauds this great initiative by the Toronto 2015 and the Agitos Foundation to promote and strengthen Parasport in the Americas."

The Games are due place in Toronto in 2015 from August 7 until 14 and will feature 1,500 athletes from the 28 countries and territories competing across 15 sports,