The Executive Secretariat of the Council of Ministers of Treasury or Finance of Central America, Panama and the Dominican Republic (SECOSEFIN), officials from the member countries of the Council of Ministers of Treasury or Finance of Central America, Panama and the Dominican Republic (COSEFIN/SICA) and the Subregional Headquarters of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in Mexico met virtually on May 5 to discuss the strategy for implementing the project "Disaster risk reduction and sustainable and inclusive adaptation to climate change in public investment” (RIDASICC) and a proposal to request the project’s extension to March 2024.
During the session, Hugo Beteta, Director of ECLAC’s Subregional Headquarters in Mexico, stressed the importance of maintaining a constructive and participatory approach to the RIDASICC project to foster learning between countries and institutions, which has laid the foundation for establishing a community of practice on the incorporation of disaster risk reduction and sustainable and inclusive adaptation to climate change into the region’s public investment projects.
Meanwhile, the Executive Secretary of COSEFIN, Alfredo Flores, mentioned the project’s relevance for creating resilient public infrastructure that would lead to sustainable development and for having improved social indicators in the region.
The country delegates and representatives of these regional institutions reviewed and approved the proposal to extend the RIDASICC project to the end of 2023. Furthermore, they tasked ECLAC and SECOSEFIN with negotiating this extension and beginning to mobilize the financial resources needed to extend beyond 2024 this important regional support, which benefits public sector officials in the application of disaster risk reduction and sustainable and inclusive adaptation to climate change in public investment projects.
The consultation takes place in the framework of the VI meeting (of a special nature this time) of the Regional Technical Committee, a space for co-management where the partners analyze and discuss technical and management issues related to the RIDASICC project, which aims to contribute to the reduction of losses and damages caused by disasters and the response to the climate emergency by including disaster risk reduction and sustainable and inclusive adaptation to climate change in the life cycle of public investment projects, conserving and improving the services provided to the population of the member countries of COSEFIN/SICA.
The RIDASICC project is coordinated by ECLAC and SECOSEFIN – with the active 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 and other institutions of the Central American Integration System (SICA) – and has financial support from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).
