Candidates for Director General of IICA outlined their work plan to the Executive Committee
San Jose, 26 July 2017 (IICA). On Wednesday 19 July 2017, the candidates for the position of Director General of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), CarlosFurche and Manuel Otero, presented their work plans for the 2018-2022 term to the Executive Committee.
Furche, aged 66, an is an agricultural engineer from Chile and holds a Master’s degree in Sociology. Currently, he is the Minister of Agriculture of Chile, and was the Director of International Economic Relations in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of his country.
“International technical cooperation is passing through a difficult moment; this requires us to recognize this and work in an efficient manner, while making better use of resources without compromising technical cooperation. We must produce more to feed the region, for which sustainability is a condition, and responds to our ability to innovate and to conduct research”, Furche stated.
Otero, aged 65, is a veterinarian from Argentina and holds a Master’s degree in Animal Production and Rural Development. Formerly, he was an institutional relations advisor to the Chamber of Veterinary Products (CAPROVE) of Argentina and a consultant in the Argentine Council on Foreign Relations (CARI). Otero was also the IICA Representative in Brazil and Uruguay.
“We have a great opportunity to position our hemisphere as a key player to face the challenges of food security and world environmental sustainability. We have the obligation to be important players in the face of an opportunity that we must seize,” Otero stated.
The new Director General of the Institute for the 2018-2022 term will be elected by the Ministers of Agriculture of the Americas during the meeting of Inter-American Board of Agriculture (IABA), to be held in Costa Rica on 25 and 26 October.
More information:
Hector Iturbe, Technical Secretary of IICA Governing Bodies.
