ESCALAR partners ratify their commitment to promote scaling up of Agricultural Innovations for Climate Adaptation

• ESCALAR has contributed to the elaboration of four policy instruments with Multi-Stakeholder Platforms (MSPs) with which the project works

Within the framework of the ESCALAR project (Scaling up climate change adaptation solutions for resilience and migration reduction in the Central American Dry Corridor), led by CATIE (Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center), with the support of the Swedish Cooperation, a tri-national follow-up session was held to learn about progress in the development or updating of policy instruments to promote the scaling up of Agricultural Innovations for Climate Adaptation (IApA) and the creation of youth-led rural enterprises in the Trifinio region.

The activity, which took place on October 1 at the Legendario Hotel in Esquipulas, Guatemala, was attended by 14 people (7 women and 7 men), including officials and consultants hired by the Multi Actor Platforms (MAP) with ESCALAR resources to develop or update local policy instruments to promote the scaling up of the IApA in the Trifinio territory. ESCALAR works with four MAPs: the Mancomunidad Guisayote of Honduras, the Mancomunidad Asociación de Municipios del Trifinio (AMT) of El Salvador, the Red de Mujeres del Trifinio (HOSAGUA) and the Mancomunidad Trinational Fronteriza del Río Lempa.

This follow-up meeting was important to learn about the progress made by each Multi Actor Platform in the development of their policy instruments 2023 - 2024 for the promotion of the scaling up of IApA, to share the operationalization strategies of the policy instruments developed or to be developed by ESCALAR MAP partners, and to share the visibility guidelines as part of ESCALAR branding in order to improve and standardize the visibility of these instruments. branding de ESCALAR con el fin de mejorar y uniformizar la visibilidad de dichos instrumentos.

During this year, ESCALAR has contributed to the development of four instruments, corresponding to each of the Multi-Stakeholder Platforms. With the Mancomunidad de Guisayote (Honduras), a strategic territorial plan was developed with emphasis on promoting agricultural innovations for adaptation to climate change and strengthening rural enterprises led by young people. With the Asociación de Municipios del Trifinio of El Salvador, assistance was provided to prepare the ESCALAR-AMT Institutional Strategy for Economic Development “Promoting sustainable rural economies.

In addition, with the Red de Mujeres del Trifinio (HOSAGUA), which is tri-national in scope, collaboration is being carried out in the design and development of a tri-national information system to improve the organization of its members. The HOSAGUA Network has also been supported in the development of a plan for the insertion of agricultural innovations for climate change in coffee, basic grains, and water harvesting in reservoirs.

Finally, with the Mancomunidad Trinational Fronteriza of Rio Lempa, work is underway to prepare the institutional regulations for the implementation of the Municipal Agri-Food Program, as an integral part of the Local Cross-Border Public Policy (PPLT) - Zero Hunger to promote the use of agricultural innovations for adaptation to climate change in coffee, basic grains, water harvesting, and the use of bio-inputs.

During this follow-up session, the route to be followed for the approval of each of the instruments to be completed by 2024 was also ratified.