The meeting was attended by Alfredo I. Flores, executive secretary of SICA, Edwin Martínez, finance minister of Guatemala and current president pro tempore of COSEFIN, accompanied by Rosa María Ortega, director of public credit; José Adrián Chavarría, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit of Nicaragua; Mateo Castillero and Dalila Rodríguez, representatives of the Ministry of Economy and Finance of Panama; Luis Sánchez, director of economic and fiscal policy of the Ministry of Finance of El Salvador; and Luis Manuel Martínez, representative of the Dominican Republic. On behalf of ECLAC’s Subregional Headquarters in Mexico, its director, Hugo Beteta, and Julie Lennox, coordinator of the RIDASICC project from ECLAC and head of the Agricultural Development and Climate Change Unit, participated.
Hugo Beteta highlighted the contribution of the RIDASICC project to strengthening public investment capacities and the close collaboration achieved with the officials of the institutions responsible for the National Public Investment Systems (SNIP). He reiterated the need to carry out phase II of the RIDASICC project that will help the region to increase and strengthen the understanding of disaster risks and improve its adaptation to climate change in a sustainable and inclusive manner.
During the meeting, Alfredo I. Flores recounted the most outstanding achievements of the RIDASICC project to date. In the first phase of the project, efforts were focused on the priority sectors of road infrastructure and potable water and sanitation. In phase II, the project proposes to consolidate the progress made in these sectors and expand their collaboration to the priority sector of public health in collaboration with the sectoral authorities.
Secretary Flores pointed out the importance of having the endorsement of COSEFIN to begin the search for financing for phase II, which is proposed for three years.
Given this initiative, the pro tempore president of COSEFIN, Edwin Martínez, expressed his support for the proposal and highlighted the relevance of the RIDASICC project for the region’s ministries. The proposal was well received by the other participants, who expressed their unanimous support for the resolution, stressing the importance and need to continue strengthening national and regional institutional capacities and implement actions to ensure the necessary financing for RIDASICC phase II.
About RIDASICC
ECLAC and the Executive Secretariat of the Council of Treasury or Finance Ministers of Central America, Panama and the Dominican Republic (SECOSEFIN) with the close participation of the seven Treasury or Finance Ministries and three Planning Ministries or Secretariats responsible for the National Investment Systems Public (SNIP) of the member countries of COSEFIN/SICA implement the RIDASICC project with financing from COSUDE.
Focused on capacity building, RIDASICC has interconnected training components with a “learning-by-doing” approach, strengthening of methodological guides, generation of tools, pilot projects and strengthening of geographic information systems required for the formulation and evaluation of investment projects. public.
The project combines actions at the national level focused on strengthening the capacities of the SNIPs, including dependencies and entities of the prioritized sectors and specialized institutions, with actions at the regional level to strengthen the capacities of SICA instances, including COSEFIN, the Sectoral Council of Ministers of Transportation of Central America of the Secretariat for Central American Economic Integration (COMITRAN/SIECA), the Coordination Center for the Prevention of Disasters in Central America and the Dominican Republic (CEPREDENAC), the Regional Committee for Hydraulic Resources (CRRH) and the Secretariat General of SICA.
