On Thursday 13 May, SDC set up the Regional Strategic Committee of the Resilient Andes project. It includes high-level authorities from the project’s partner ministries and organisations in Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru. The committee will be a forum for consensus and dialogue to build a shared vision on challenges and solutions for the climate resilience of family farming and the food and water security of the most vulnerable rural Andean populations.

The Andean lands shared by Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru form one of the regions with the greatest exposure and sensitivity to global climate change. The pressure on Andean ecosystems and the region’s ecosystem services and biodiversity affects the lives of small Andean farmers and the communities which depend on the water and food they produce.

The Regional Resilient Andes project in Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru helps to strengthen and connect up public and private stakeholders’ capacities for providing services to improve the most vulnerable rural Andean communities’ resilience and adaptation to climate change. The project coordinates with each country’s climate, rural development and social inclusion policies and is managed by National Technical Committees, composed of representatives of the Ministries of Environment, Agriculture or Rural Development and the Ministries (or agencies) of Economic and Social Inclusion.

The Regional Strategic Committee, installed on May 13, brings together high-level representatives of the agencies that belong to the National Technical Committees, and will provide strategic guidance to the project’s regional activities. It will also serve as a forum for stakeholders to meet together and build up a regional vision of the challenges they have in common, and develop joint strategies for the Andean rural communities to become climate resilient.

In its installation session, the Committee approved the project’s objectives for 2021 and the common agenda of regional activities. Members agreed that each country would host the committee annually, starting with Bolivia in 2021,  and led by the Pluri-national Authority of Mother Earth (APMT), and subsequently by Ecuador and Peru.

The committee discussed the political transition in Ecuador and Peru, and the implications for the project. The representatives of both countries reported that they expected an orderly transfer of power, which will include the existing commitments of international cooperation. The project is expected to continue with the same momentum, particularly because it is linkage with each country’s climate commitments.

Finally, the committee agreed to hold a second session in the second half of 2021, coordinated by Bolivia’s APMT, which will be attended by the new representatives of the partner agencies of Ecuador and Peru.

Bolivia was represented by Álvaro Mollinedo, Deputy-Minister of Rural and Agricultural Development at the Ministry of Rural Development and Land; Angélica Ponce, Executive Director of the Pluri-national Authority Madre Tierra of Bolivia; Alan Lisperguer, General Director of River Basins and Water Resources of the Ministry of Environment and Water; Ronald Ortube, representative of the Deputy-Minister of Planning and Coordination at the Ministry of Development Planning.

Ecuador was represented by Karina Barreda, Under-Secretary of Climate Change at the Ministry of Environment and Water; Paul Barrera, Director of Analysis and Inter-sector Coordination for Family Farming at the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, and Gustavo Aldaz, Representative of the Ministry of Economic and Social Inclusion.

Peru was represented by María Isabel Remy, Deputy-Minister of Policies and Monitoring of Agricultural Development at the Ministry of Agricultural Development and Irrigation; Cristina Rodríguez, Director of Adaptation to Climate Change and Desertification at the Ministry of Environment, and  Hugo Vila, Executive Director of FONCODES at the Ministry of Development and Social Inclusion.

The session was attended by representatives of the Helvetas Swiss Inter-cooperation-Avina Foundation consortium, which facilitated the event, by the Project Management Unit and by SDC. The Committee’s installation session was chaired by SDC.

The Resilient Andes project is part of the Global Climate Change and Environment Programme of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). It is facilitated by the Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation-Avina Foundation consortium, in partnership with the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) and IFAD. Its first phase runs from May 2020 to April 2024.

Source: Regional Resilient Andes project

Links of interest:
Brochure Regional Resilient Andes project – Ecuador (spanish)
Brochure Regional Resilient Andes project – Peru (spanish)
Brochure Regional Resilient Andes project – Bolivia (spanish)
Factsheet Regional Resilient Andes project
Facebook Regional Resilient Andes project