Sixth Nexus Virtual Forum. Diagnosis and proposal to promote irrigation in Central America under the Nexus approach

The United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and GIZ organized the sixth nexus virtual forum, which was held on October 7 and had 96 participants, from 21 countries and 36 institutions (46% of the participants were women). The objective of this virtual meeting focused on discussing the results of the study "Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Southern Mexico: New strategies to promote the development of irrigation in rural areas under the Nexus approach", carried out by the ECLAC consultant, Ms. Marcela Aedo.

The discussion considered the context of the subregion, which is characterized by the consecutive occurrence of extreme drought events, and therefore the analysis of the interdependencies between the water, energy and food sectors, together with future actions around these three elements play a relevant role in guaranteeing long-term sustainable development as the 2030 Agenda propose.

The event started with the participation of Ms. Silvia Saravia, from ECLAC's Natural Resources Division, who welcome the audience and panelists. Mr. Antonio Levy, Regional Coordinator of the Nexus Dialogue in Latin America, oversaw moderating the meeting. Subsequently, Mrs. Marcela Aedo presented the main findings of the study, an analysis of public policies and the main actions that are being implemented in relation to the Nexus. In addition, she presented proposals related to the promotion of irrigation for family farming and the application of technical training systems in cascade. Then, there were comments from the experts, Mr. Maynor Estrada (FAO), Ms. Cinthia Herrera (SAG Honduras), Mr. Ismael Merlos (FUNDE El Salvador) and Mr. Miguel Gómez (Consultant). Finally, the experts interacted with the online audience through a question and answer section.