Mexico and Central American nations have created a new forum to exchange experiences in disaster risk management and in the use of financial instruments to manage natural disasters and risk transfer schemes as part of preparations for the upcoming operationalization of SICA's Central American Fund for the Promotion of Integrated Disaster Risk Management (FOCEGIR).
August 2012: Central American nations and Mexico launched a new Forum for the Comprehensive Management of Disaster Risk to promote disaster risk awareness in Central America and share the experiences of Mexico in the development and implementation of financial instruments for the prevention and management of natural disasters and disaster risk transfer schemes.
The Forum was formally launched 2-3 August 2012 in Tegucigalpa, Honduras at an event attended by representatives of disaster planning and response agencies, and finance ministries, of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua and Panama, as well as of The Center for the Prevention of Natural Disasters in Central America (CEPREDENAC), the Secretariat of the Central American Integration System (SICA), and the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (BCIE).
The main focus of the inaugural meeting of the Forum was to learn from the Mexican experience in the implementation of its comprehensive strategy of risk management, its disaster prevention fund, schemes for catastrophic risk transfer, as well as to discuss Central America experiences in implementing concrete actions for integrated disaster risk management. Central American officials are keen to learn from the Mexican experience in light of the recent approval by SICA Heads of State of the Central American Fund for the Promotion of Integrated Disaster Risk Management (FOCEGIR), whose implementation is expected in coming months. FOECGIR will become the financial instrument to provide resources and technical assistance to Central American countries in their implementation of the Central American Policy of Integrated Disaster Risk Management (PCGIR).
The Forum was developed as part of the Tuxtla Dialogue and Consultation Mechanism of Mexico’s Human Resources Capacity Building Program for Mesoamerica. It is chaired by the President of Honduras’ Permanent Contingencies Commission (COPECO) and its members include CEPREDENAC Council members, CEPREDENAC Executive Secretary Ivan Morales and the Director General of Mexico’s Fund for Natural Disasters (FONDEN) and Director General of the Insurance Unit of Mexico’s Secretariat of Finance and Public Credit. [SICA Press Release (in Spanish)]