IICA participated in the “Green Oscar” awards ceremony
San Jose, 1 September 2017 (IICA). The Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) was invited to participate in the jury of the fourth edition of the Green Latin American Awards, which honors the most significant environmental initiatives that support Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
Katia Marzall, leader of the flagship project on Resilience and Integrated Risk Management, along with a five-member jury panel, was responsible for evaluating the front-runner projects by assessing criteria such as feasibility of the project, environmental, social and economic impact, and innovation.
The participation of IICA in the event was at the request of Gustavo Manrique, president of the Green Latin America Awards. In March of this year, Manrique visited IICA Headquarters in order to form a partnership and to seek a promoter for the award. The Institute has at its disposal a wide coordination network in the region, given the position of IICA as an international organization specialized in technical cooperation in the agricultural sector.
"IICA played an important part in facilitating the participation of all countries in the hemisphere in this event. The Americas provide an example with respect to the environment, biodiversity, and social development; we believe it is important to consider that the agricultural sector also has a role to play and provides concrete contributions to these issues”, Marzall stated.
For the fourth edition of the “Green Oscars”, as these awards are known, a total of 2 409 initiatives were presented from 26 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, plus Spain, which exceeded the number of entries in 2016. That year, 1 400 projects from 25 countries were received.
The award ceremony was held in Guayaquil, Ecuador and was attended by more than 500 people. The winners in the categories of water, biodiversity and fauna, forest and flora, human development, energy, sustainable finance, urban management, solid waste management, oceans, and responsible production and consumption were awarded a prize that alluded to the Americas in the form of a leaf.
During the ceremony, the best 500 projects were given the opportunity to expose their initiatives and to interact with private companies and financial agencies for potential support and collaboration.
The event was also a key opportunity for IICA to learn about projects and successful experiences, which the Institute could support and which have the potential to benefit the agricultural sector in its member estates. The initiatives are also compatible with the strategic objectives of IICA such as agricultural chains, inclusion, rural development, resilience, family agriculture, and food health and safety.
Katia Marzall, representing IICA, joined the jury panel which was comprised of Pedro Tarak, co-founder and president of Sistema B Internacional; Gerardo Mirabelli, vice president of Development at Earth University; Ivan Gonzalez, specialist in the Poverty and Sustainable Development Program at the Regional Center of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Panama; Sebastian Troeng, executive vice-president of Conservation International; Ligia Castro, corporate director of Environment and Climate Change of the Andean Development Corporation (CAF).
“Each sector is adopting a vision of an economy where success is measured by the well-being of a person, a society, and nature. The increasing amount of participation in this event with the number of projects, private companies, and international organizations is evidence that this process is in motion and will not stop. The participation of IICA demonstrates that the agricultural sector is in harmony with this effort in the region,” added Marzall.
The fifth edition of the Green Latin America Award will be held next year in Guayaquil. Registration is set to open in early 2018.
More information: katia.marzall@iica.int
www.premioslatinoamericaverde.com