The Director General of IICA made the announcement during a coordination meeting involving several of the Institute’s member countries.
San Jose, Costa Rica, May 5, 2011 (IICA). ). Costa Rica will be the site of the “2011 Meeting of Ministers of Agriculture of the Americas,” which is the most important meeting on agriculture held at the hemispheric level and involves the Ministers of Agriculture of 34 countries of the Americas.
Addressing the Special Advisory Commission on Management Issues (SACMI), comprising representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago and the United States of America, the Director General of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), Victor M. Villalobos, announced that the ministerial meeting would be held on October 19-22 at IICA Headquarters, in San Jose, Costa Rica.
“Sowing innovation to harvest prosperity” will be the motto of the meeting, which will focus on the need for the governments of the countries of the Americas to invest in innovations that will make their agricultural sectors competitive, sustainable and inclusive, and more able to meet two of the greatest challenges they face today: to combat the effects of climate change and ensure food security.
The inauguration of the “2011 Meeting of Ministers of Agriculture of the Americas” will be held at the National Theater in San Jose. The agenda calls for the participants to analyze the state of and outlook for agriculture and exchange successful ideas and experiences in innovation for competitive, sustainable and inclusive agriculture, among other topics.
In the near future, Mr. Villalobos, Gloria Abraham, the Minister of Agriculture and Livestock Farming of Costa Rica, and Rene Castro Salazar, the Minister of Foreign Relations of Costa Rica, will sign a cooperation agreement to formalize support and coordination between IICA and the government of Costa Rica, in preparation for the event.
Technical strengthening of IICA
The members of the SACMI endorsed the proposal put forward by the Director General calling for the technical strengthening of the Institute.
According to Mr. Villalobos, IICA must focus the technical cooperation it provides to its member countries on those areas in which it has the greatest capacities and experience, especially innovation, competitiveness, sustainability and inclusion.
To accomplish this, he proposed that the Institute’s technical networks be strengthened by incorporating professionals from governmental institutions of the Member States, the academic sector, trade associations and businesses; expanding and consolidating ties between the Institute and other international organizations with a view to pooling and boosting technical capacities and resources as well as facilitating the development of linkages and mechanisms for the transfer of experiences and the joint implementation of projects by two or more countries.
All of these proposals were endorsed by the SACMI.
For more information, contact:
lars.pira@iica.int
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