Integration mechanisms agree to work on three central areas to address disaster risk reduction and climate change in the region

The Latin American and Caribbean Economic System (SELA) and the Association of Caribbean States (ACS), together with the Central American Integration System (SICA), the Andean Community (CAN), the Latin American Integration Association (ALADI), the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America - Peoples' Trade Agreement (ALBA-TCP) and the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organisation (ACTO) defined three central axes to address disaster risk reduction in the region. 

The integration mechanisms participated in the meeting “Proposals for joint regional action: disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation,” held in Guatemala, within the framework of the IX Summit of Heads of State and/or Government of the ACS, where they shared best practices in this area and defined three proposals to address this issue in Latin America and the Caribbean. 

First, priority was given to strengthening capacity building activities through the collection of information and evidence on disaster risks and population mobility related to climate change. 

The meeting also recognised the importance of working on the inclusion of disaster risk considerations and factors in the design of social policy, as well as the factor of population mobility due to climate change. 

Finally, the integration mechanisms agreed to work on planning strategies for operational utility and post-disaster recovery, taking a regional and subregional approach. 

It should be noted that all these efforts will be directed towards the constitution of a regional action plan in the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. 

In this regard, the Permanent Secretary of SELA, Ambassador Clarems Endara, said that "the great task of settling down to seek cooperation is already an achievement in itself." Nevertheless, he asserted, "but we are a little more demanding, so we are going to try to deepen much more a mechanism in which we can have technical groups working on regional approaches that could end and make proposals for public policies, or specifically deliverables, to some mechanism of a regional nature." 

The event was attended by ACS Secretary General, Rodolfo Sabonge; SICA Secretary General, Werner Vargas; the Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs of Guatemala, Karla Samayoa; the Coordinator of the Network for Social Studies on Disaster Prevention in Latin America (La Red), Virginia Jiménez; and the Executive Secretary of the Coordination Centre for Disaster Prevention in Central America and the Dominican Republic (CEPREDENAC), Claudia Herrera.  

This meeting is part of the working document "Proposal for an inter-secretariat methodology," which emerged within the framework of the forum "Responding to the challenges of integration for development in Latin America and the Caribbean. Proposals from regional and subregional integration mechanisms," organized last December 2022 by SELA and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).