Agreement between both organizations was signed during a ceremony to mark the Institute’s 70th Anniversary, at which the Executive Director of the WFP was the main speaker.
San Jose, Costa Rica, October 9, 2012 (IICA). The Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) signed an agreement to carry out joint actions aimed at boosting agricultural productivity in Latin America and the Caribbean, in order to strengthen the population’s access to healthy, good quality foods.
Among other objectives, the agreement signed by the Director General of IICA, Víctor M. Villalobos, and the Executive Director of WFP, Ertharin Cousin, seeks to consolidate the work carried out by both organizations as part of the Purchase for Progress (P4P) Program. This initiative has been working to improve links between small-scale producers and markets in Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua since 2009.
“The WFP not only provides food to the populations, but also gives them tools to develop their capacities to meet their current and future needs, as well as those of their children. But we need partners who can contribute their comparative advantages; therefore the partnership with IICA is very important in this part of the world,” Cousin stated.
The Director General of IICA emphasized: “More than a document, this agreement is a commitment to the countries where IICA and the WFP will work together. We will also explore possibilities of sharing our experiences in other parts of the hemisphere, especially those gained through working with small-scale farmers.”
The agreement was signed on October 8, 2012, in the context of the ceremony to mark IICA’s 70th Anniversary, at which Cousin was the main speaker.
The other objectives of the agreement are to implement programs aimed at mitigating and adapting the agriculture of Latin America and the Caribbean to the effects of climate change, as well as supporting policies on agriculture and environmental sustainability.
During the period 2012-2013, IICA and the WFP will support capacity-building processes with the farmers participating in the P4P Program in Central America. They will also promote research on market links, zero tillage and reduced tillage, and will exchange information on access to credit and agricultural insurance for small-scale farmers.
The WFP will participate as IICA’s partner in the Central American Regional Initiative to Link Small-scale Farmers to Markets, implemented by the Institute and the Executive Secretariat of the Central American Agricultural Council (SE-CAC).
The P4P program in the Central American countries forms part of the WFP´s global initiative, Purchase for Progress, which aims to purchase food directly from farmers and their associations, in order to guarantee fairer prices for their products and facilitate their access to markets.
For more information, contact:
miguel.garcia@iica.int
