This period marked the start of a new financial year as well as the first full budget year of a new Government in Canada.
Ottawa, Canada. As such, our antennae were active, scouting for programme priorities and opportunities for engagement. Added to that, our own Institutional Management meeting and the Delegation’s Annual Accountability Seminar made the quarter an extremely active and satisfying one. The highpoint however was the visit of the Director General to Ottawa. Almost 4 years since his last visit, it was his first under the 2014 – 2018 Medium Term Plan period, and significantly also, the first under the new Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food. It was therefore gratifying to receive favorable feedback as well as genuine appreciation from the Minister for the strides being made under Dr. Villalobos’ leadership.
With the Paris Agreement on Climate Change being recently opened for signatures, and clear signals by the Government of Canada that serious attention would be paid to addressing the impacts as well adaptation strategies for Climate Change, the Delegation’s special feature at its Accountability exercise was fitting. Exploring the need for more resilient food systems through a high level dialogue, the discourse not only clarified resiliency indicators, but also unveiled a myriad of hidden implications. Our Institute’s technical capabilities and activities under the requisite Flagship project will no doubt further hemispheric efforts.
The launching of the recently approved FonTC project at the 3rd World Cocoa Conference in Punta Cana was both timely as well as encouraging. The main issues that the project seeks to address were identified as top bugbears of the cocoa sector throughout the producing countries, and the Delegation is therefore optimistic for meaningful contributions through the project.
As evidenced by interim results, our Institute is clearly making progress in navigating the challenges facing Agriculture in the hemisphere. Collectively we now also have an opportunity to contribute to Canada’s international development policy through a consultative process that was recently launched. This can certainly be mutually beneficial and the Delegation looks forward to providing meaningful inputs towards win-win solutions in Latin America and the Caribbean and Canada.
