First overseas visit of IICA’s new Director General will include meetings with ministers and senior officials in Canada, the USA and Mexico
San Jose, 21 February 2018 (IICA). This week, the new Director General of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), Manuel Otero, embarks on a visit to North America that will include meetings with ministers and other senior government officials in Canada, the United States of America and Mexico, as well as with representatives of multilateral funding agencies, environmentalist organizations, research centers and private firms, and OAS Secretary General, Luis Almagro.
The overseas visit, Otero’s first since he took office on 15 January as the head of the organization responsible for promoting agricultural development in the Americas, commences in Ottawa on 22 February with working meetings with the Minister of International Development and La Francophonie, Marie-Claude Bibeau; the Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, Chris Forbes; and senior officials of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA).
“There is great potential for increasing the joint work between IICA and Canada, mainly through rural development projects in the Caribbean countries,” observed Otero, Director General of the agency headquartered in Costa Rica.
In the Canadian capital, Otero will also meet with the President and CEO of the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), Scott Vaughan, with whom he will discuss the implementation of agricultural and climate change mitigation programs.
In Washington, the head of the agency of the Inter-American system responsible for rural development will begin a hectic round of meetings on Monday, 26 February, holding discussions with high-level officials at the Secretariat of Agriculture and the State Department.
He will also have meetings with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a sister organization of the World Bank that focuses on private sector development; Argentina’s new ambassador in Washington, Fernando Oris de Roa; senior officials of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the World Bank; and the Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS).
In addition, the head of IICA will meet with the Director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Carissa F. Etienne.
In Mexico City, Otero’s scheduled activities begin on 1 March. They will include a meeting with the Secretary of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food, José Eduardo Calzada Rovirosa, and discussions with senior officials of the National Health, Safety and Agrifood Quality Service (SENASICA).
From Mexico, Otero will travel to Jamaica, where he will take part in the 35th Regional Conference of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which begins on 5 March.
More information:
José Alfredo Alpízar, IICA Coordinator of Press and Dissemination