GM launches regional advisory services in Latin America & the Caribbean

8 February, 2007

In order to increase the effectiveness of the GM’s programme and services throughout Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), the GM has posted four Regional Advisors to the region.

This innovation is part of the GM’s overall strategic approach which involves providing specialized, decentralized services and supporting policy processes and partnerships at country, sub-regional and regional levels.

The Advisors will support the goals of the GM’s programme and initiatives in LAC, by building and strengthening strategic alliances and contributing to mainstreaming the UNCCD into development agendas.

They will provide guidance and backstopping on the strategic approach of the GM and its partners in the LAC region and identify opportunities for new or further collaboration.

It is expected that by working to create synergies, the Regional Advisors will help foster an environment which is conducive to investment in Sustainable Land Management (SLM) as a contribution to sustainable rural development and UNCCD implementation.

The Regional Advisors’ specific brief includes:

facilitating the flow of information on modalities and priorities for development financing
offering direct support for the development of strategies, approaches and methodological tools for the mainstreaming of UNCCD into national, sub-regional and regional development frameworks, and into international budgetary and programming cycles
providing services in the form of conceptual tools and methodologies to support the development of national financing strategies aimed at establishing medium and long-term investment frameworks supporting UNCCD implementation
helping promote and consolidate strategic alliances with key regional and sub-regional organizations to support the GM’s resource mobilization efforts for UNCCD implementation in the region.

The Regional Advisors are being hosted by partner institutions in LAC and will regularly and systematically interact both with each other and with national, sub-regional and regional partners, creating synergies and harmonizing interventions.

The Regional Advisors for the South America and the Central American region are working at national and sub-regional levels to support the creation of a conducive enabling environment for investments in SLM, as a contribution to sustainable rural development.

The Regional Advisor for the Andean region is focusing on the synergies between the UN Conventions on biodiversity (UNCBD), climate change (UNFCCC) and on combating desertification (UNCCD), working to develop mechanisms of compensation for ecosystems services in the Andean Region.

The Regional Advisor for Strategic Programmes, based in Mexico, is working on strategic issues relevant to the LAC region as a whole, including investment platforms, tools for mainstreaming the UNCCD, increased south-to-south collaboration, the GM’s Strategic Programme on Financing Instruments and on enhanced synergies between UNCCD issues and food security, rural development and natural resource management.

The partner organizations hosting the GM’s Regional Advisors are the FAO Regional Office in Santiago, Chile, Conservation International in Quito, Ecuador, and CATIE (Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center) in San José, Costa Rica. Negotiations are underway with the FAO to place the GM Regional Advisor for strategic programmes at its Regional Office in Mexico City.

For more information, please contact:

Mr Alejandro Kilpatrick, Programme Coordinator, Latin America and the Caribbean
Tel. +39 06 5459 2524
a.kilpatrick (at) ifad.org