The Director of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), Magdy Martínez-Solimán, and the Director General of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), Manuel Otero, participated in a virtual meeting during which they agreed to develop a joint work agenda that focuses on Central America and some Caribbean countries, starting with Haiti.
The main objective of the meeting was to learn about the roadmap for international cooperation of the Director of AECID, who took office in September 2020.
Both institutions have a long history of cooperation that they hope to strengthen during this new period.
“We agreed on the importance of jointly supporting the issues of climate change, territorial development and family farming; bioeconomy and production development; as well as the areas of gender and youth, ICTs and innovation”, stated the Director General of IICA, who stressed that the international organization specializing in rural and agricultural development was at the complete disposal of AECID to assist in implementing its agenda in the Americas.
During the meeting, Martínez-Solimán and Otero agreed on the need to bring together the technical working groups they lead to develop a joint agenda, with special emphasis on Central America and some Caribbean countries, starting with Haiti. In this regard, the Director of AECID underscored her interest in liaising and working with specialized regional organizations.
IICA and AECID have actively collaborated for many years, developing important initiatives in Latin America and the Caribbean. Two noteworthy examples are the Innovative Policies for Area-based Rural Development (PIDERAL) project, which was implemented in Costa Rica, Ecuador, Peru and the Dominican Republic, and the Financial Protection for Drought Management and Adaptation to Water Scarcity in Agriculture in the Central American Dry Corridor (ARAUCLIMA) initiative, which provides technical assistance to about 300 families in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, in one of the most vulnerable regions of the world.
About IICA
IICA is the specialized agency for agriculture in the Inter-American system, with a mission to encourage, promote and support its 34 Member States in their efforts to achieve agricultural development and rural well-being through international technical cooperation of excellence.
