Representatives of the Swiss Cooperation in Central America (COSUDE), the Executive Secretariat of the Council of Ministers of Finance of Central America, Panama and the Dominican Republic (SECOSEFIN) and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) held the V meeting of the Steering Committee of the project “Strengthening capacities for the incorporation of disaster risk and sustainable and inclusive adaptation to climate change in public investment in the member countries of COSEFIN/SICA (RIDASICC)”.
During the welcome to the event, Hugo Beteta, Director of the ECLAC Subregional Headquarters in Mexico mentioned the importance of building synergies with seven Ministries of Finance or Finance and 3 Ministries of Planning of COSEFIN member countries, along with other national sectoral entities. and regional SICA, creating an initiative to incorporate sustainable and inclusive adaptation measures to climate change and disaster risk reduction in public investment and to be a region that can jointly address its challenges.
Alfredo Flores, Executive Secretary of COSEFIN highlighted the relevance of public investment to be on the path of sustainable development and improve social indicators. He mentioned that events related to climate change are becoming more frequent and this initiative contributes to generating collective knowledge in the incorporation of climate change measures and disaster risk reduction in public investment in the region.
Jean-Gabriel Duss, Director of Cooperation in Central America at SDC, emphasized that, on behalf of the Swiss Cooperation, RIDASICC is a special initiative since it combines contributions from multiple institutions with a common goal, responding to the climate change crisis. He has found in the project a response capacity through capacity building and incorporating climate change measures and disaster risk reduction into planning in a more practical way. Similarly, he took the opportunity to thank the leadership of SECOSEFIN and the joint work with ECLAC to implement this initiative.
The objective of the meeting that takes place in Mexico City on November 8 and 9, 2022 is to review the implementation and progress of the RIDASICC project to date and the priorities for 2023.
The Steering Committee is the instance of RIDASICC where strategic decisions are agreed upon for the implementation of the initiative. It is made up of the Director and the Deputy Head of International Cooperation of SDC Central America, the Executive Secretary of SECOSEFIN, the Director of the Subregional Headquarters in Mexico of ECLAC and the Head of the Unit for Agricultural Development and Climate Change (UDACC).
Currently, ECLAC and SECOSEFIN, with the close participation of the seven Ministries of Treasury or Finance and three Ministries or Secretariats of Planning responsible for the National Public Investment Systems (SNIP) of the COSEFIN/SICA member countries, are implementing the RIDASICC project with financing from SDC.
The RIDASICC project combines actions at the national level focused on strengthening the capacities of the SNIPs, including ministries of the prioritized sectors and specialized institutions, with actions at the regional level working on strengthening 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 General Secretariat of SICA. Focused on capacity building, the project has interconnected components of “learning-by-doing” training, strengthening of methodological guides, generation of practical tools, pilot projects and strengthening of geographic information systems required for the formulation and evaluation of investment projects. public.
