The event was attended by the members of the CCAD Technical Committees on Climate Change and Integrated Water Resources Management; the national focal points of the SICA Ministries of

Environment; the National Liaisons and focal points of CEPREDENAC; the Directors of the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services and national focal points of the CRRH; and the representatives of the European Union and the Spain-SICA Fund.

Panama City, Panama. 4 July 2022. On 30 June in Panama City, a regional meeting was held with the objective of socialising knowledge products generated by the project "Capacity Building for Disaster Risk Reduction due to Floods and Drought and Resilience Building in Central America" that CCAD, CEPREDENAC and CRRH, which is funded by the European Union through the Euroclima+ programme and implemented by the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) and the French Development Agency (AFD), in addition to presenting the opportunities and synergies of work as a result of the scalability of the actions supported by the project.

The event was attended by the members of the CCAD Technical Committees on Climate Change and Integrated Water Resources Management; the national focal points of the SICA Ministries of Environment; the National Liaisons and focal points of CEPREDENAC; the Directors of the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services and national focal points of the CRRH; and the representatives of the European Union and the Spain-SICA Fund.

During the opening ceremony, remarks were made by the Executive Secretary of CEPREDENAC, Ms. Claudia Herrera; the Director of Hydrometeorology of ETESA and President Pro Tempore of the CRRH, Ms. Luz Graciela de Calzadilla; the Cooperation Attaché of the Delegation of the European Union in Panama, Ms. Zoe Konstantinou; and the Programme Officer of the Technical Cooperation Office of AECID in Panama, Ms. Adoración León. The closing remarks were given by the Minister in charge of the Environment of Panama in her capacity as Pro Tempore Presidency of the CCAD, Engineer Diana Laguna.

The CCAD presented its results on public policy instruments, national case studies and regional guidelines for drought management, which have been formulated and/or supported by the project. For its part, CEPREDENAC presented its national results on the strengthening of early warning systems for disaster prevention and/or response, while CRRH presented the Virtual Centre for Severe Atmospheric Weather Monitoring (CVTAS).

Through experience exchanges and the presentation of products and results, the regional forum aims to contribute to climate adaptation and resilience in the Central American region.

Regional Situation

Central America is a region vulnerable to climate change. Between 1970 and 2020, more than 70% of disasters in the region have been caused by hydro-meteorological events; of this total, 55% were floods; 33% storms and hurricanes; 10% droughts; and 2% extreme temperatures.

Faced with this multi-threat scenario, we have joined forces at the regional level to promote inter-institutional and inter-sectoral actions through the Executive Secretariat of the Central American Commission for Environment and Development (CCAD), the Coordination Centre for Disaster Prevention in Central America and the Dominican Republic (CEPREDENAC) and the Regional Committee on Water Resources (CRRH) through the project "Capacity Building for Disaster Risk Reduction due to Floods and Drought and Resilience Building in Central America".
This project promotes joint actions to address the high vulnerability to extreme climate phenomena accentuated by climate change, through the strengthening of institutional technical capacities, knowledge management for the generation of national and regional policy instruments, and the construction of technical tools for drought and flood management.

Within this framework, we have been able to promote the generation of specialised information on flood and drought management to facilitate decision-making. In this regard, the collection and integration of data for the characterisation of the Central American territory has been a constant activity that has allowed the development of a new work dynamic between the national environmental authorities, entities responsible for risk management and the hydrometeorological services belonging to CCAD, CEPREDENAC and CRRH respectively.

Through the actions promoted by the Project, it has been possible to feed information to early warning systems (local and national), allowing for the updating of risk management plans and the development of public policy instruments at national and regional level, based on territorial information. At the same time, knowledge management products have been generated on droughts and floods, as well as the generation of instruments for climate monitoring, with the aim of contributing to the adaptation and resilience of the region and of the populations prioritised by the national authorities of the SICA countries.

About the Project

The project "Capacity Building for Flood and Drought Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience Building in Central America"; represents an inter-institutional and inter-sectoral action effort at the regional level, led by the Executive Secretariat of the Central American Commission for Environment and Development (CCAD), the Coordination Centre for Disaster Prevention in Central America and the Dominican Republic (CEPREDENAC) and the Regional Committee for Water Resources (CRRH), who lead the agenda of the Risk Management and Climate Change subsystem of the Central American Integration System (SICA).

About EUROCLIMA+

EUROCLIMA+ is a programme funded by the European Union and co-financed by the German federal government through the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), as well as by the governments of France and Spain. It aims to reduce the impact of climate change and its effects in 18 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean by promoting climate change mitigation and adaptation, resilience and investment.

The Programme is implemented under the synergistic work of seven agencies: the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), the French Development Agency (AFD), the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Expertise France (EF), the International and Ibero-America Foundation for Administration and Public Policy (FIIAPP), the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) GmbH and the UN Environment Programme.

Contacts

For more information about EUROCLIMA+, contact Alexandra Cortés: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

For more information about Disaster risk management and reduction: droughts and floods, write to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.