Panel discussion "Promoting knowledge management towards SICA Water Security"

Since 2020, the Central American Commission for Environment and Development (CCAD) of the Central American Integration System (SICA) has been carrying out the implementation of their Water Agenda. The main objective of this Agenda is to guarantee sustainable water management in the subregion, promote cooperation and improve access to drinking water and basic sanitation for all its inhabitants.

Along these lines, the CCAD carried out a course for institutional strengthening around drought management and water security. This, with the support of the Swiss cooperation, COSUDE, and with partners such as ECLAC, GWP, UNECE and FLACSO, among others. This space was forged as a collaborative initiative that contributes to knowledge management and progress towards water security at the SICA region.

To celebrate the closing of the course and present its main results, on Friday, March 31, the panel discussion “Promoting knowledge management towards SICA Water Security” was held. The foregoing, to socialize good practices and lessons learned in community water management, reflect on the contributions generated by the revised methodological tools, socialize the projects of the Regional Environmental Observatory and follow up on the agreements regarding to the next steps of the SICA Water Agenda.

For this reason, it involved representatives of the Ministries of the Environment and other government institutions linked to water management, with representatives of councils, committees and basin organizations, representatives of NGOs, actors linked to the subject, and representatives of NGOs. All, working in the SICA region. For example, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, and the Dominican Republic participated.

On this occasion, ECLAC was in charge of presenting the Regional Water Action Agenda for Latin America and the Caribbean that emerged from the 2023 Regional Water Dialogues. The presentation was given by the consultant Elisa Blanco, and reviewed the preparatory process for the constitution of the Regional Agenda, which involved the formation of a Regional Group of Experts on Water Resources, different spaces for open consultation for regional actors, and spaces for open exchange provided by the Regional Water Dialogues. The sustainable and inclusive Water Transition initiative was reviewed, which will become part of the pillars of the Regional Water Action Agenda. Likewise, the aspects of the Regional Agenda that have to do with cooperation processes were reviewed, where the contributions and lessons of CCAD were considered.