IICA and the Ibero-American General Secretariat join forces to drive the development of rural women and South-South cooperation
San Jose, 20 August 2018 (IICA). The Director General of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), Manuel Otero, and the Ibero-American Secretary-General, Rebeca Grynspan, signed an agreement that will facilitate dialogue, planning and the implementation of initiatives related to the empowerment of rural woman, South-South cooperation, environmental protection, social cohesion geared toward youth and indigenous peoples in rural areas, as well as public policies on rural development.
“This agreement establishes the development of joint initiatives in matters related to the agriculture sector and, above all, knowledge. These innovative actions will have an impact on women and youth,” stated Otero upon signing the agreement.
During the meeting, Grynspan invited IICA to participate in the next Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State and Government, which will be held from November 15 to 16 in Antigua, Guatemala. The meeting will serve as a starting point for the initiatives included in the IICA-SEGIB partnership.
“We look forward to IICA’s participation in the Summit as well as strengthening the proposed topics. Several SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals, the central theme of the Summit) are particularly relevant to the Institute: those related to inclusion, sustainability, and agricultural and rural matters. Furthermore, we possess a platform of Heads of State and Government, sectoral meetings and horizontal cooperation, in which the Ibero-American space has a lot to offer,” stated Grynspan.
The Secretary-General of the SEGIB added that both institutions share “common areas of interest such as knowledge management, innovation, science and technology, as well as gender and rural youth.”
Grynspan proposed taking advantage of IICA’s experience in order to generate initiatives related to agriculture and the environment within the framework of Campus Iberoamérica, a SEGIB project that fosters exchanges between students, researchers and professors.
Through this agreement, the SEGIB undertakes to foster contact and coordination between the conferences related to Ibero-American agriculture and rural development. It will also disseminate and promote initiatives related to food security, sustainable development and rural well-being that are developed by the Ibero-American community.
IICA, on the other hand, will be responsible for overseeing joint actions and action plans related to public policies in the areas of cooperation detailed in the partnership; collaborating with conferences on agriculture and rural development; as well as disseminating and promoting initiatives related to food security, sustainable development and rural well-being that are generated in the Ibero-American region.
The Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB) is an international support organization for the 22 countries that make up the Ibero-American community: 19 Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries in Latin America and those of the Iberian Peninsula, Spain, Portugal and Andorra.
As part of this role, the SEGIB supports the organization of the Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State and Government, implements its mandates and promotes Ibero-American Cooperation in the areas of education, social cohesion and culture.
About IICA
IICA is the specialized agency for agriculture in the Inter-American system, with a mission to encourage, promote and support its 34 Member States in their efforts to achieve agricultural development and rural well-being through international technical cooperation of excellence.
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Isaac Zúñiga Keith, IICA journalist