Wilson Center and Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture Launch Partnership on Sustainable Food Production
The Wilson Center
SAN JOSÉ–The Wilson Center and Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) launched a partnership on June 5, 2024, to promote sustainable food production in Latin America, to increase the region’s role in global food security and minimize environmental impacts, including the unprecedented climate crisis and the effects of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest.
With 34 members in the Americas, IICA promotes agricultural development and rural well-being through technical cooperation.
This agreement, signed in San José on June 5, will also promote cooperation between the Wilson Center and IICA to address the impacts of climate change on the region’s farmers, including but not limited to the development and deployment of agricultural technologies. Through joint research and public dialogues, the Wilson Center and IICA will help address regional and global hunger while safeguarding biodiversity and minimizing the sector’s emissions.
“Latin America and the Caribbean region is blessed with immense potential to feed the world, but its farmers face daunting challenges,” Dr. Benjamin N. Gedan, Director of the Wilson Center’s Latin America Program, said. “We hope this partnership promotes public policies that incentivize sustainable agriculture, including the provision of stimulus for the development and application of new technologies.”
Gedan was joined at the signing ceremony by IICA’s Director General, Dr. Manuel Otero. “The countries of the Americas must find new and sustainable ways to make our agricultural sector more resilient and productive, as well as create a more progressive development pathway for millions of rural people. Our region suffers a paradox of two major challenges: rising food insecurity, where over 43 million people do not have enough to eat, and poor diets that result in obesity–a trend that has tripled in the last 50 years,” Dr. Otero said.
In recent years, the Wilson Center and IICA have had a rich collaborative exchange that includes the joint organization of dialogues between high agri-food authorities of the Americas and the launch of specialized publications. The signing of this Agreement heralds the strengthening of our strategic partnership towards the implementation of concrete actions that will support our vision towards achieving Agenda 2030.
About the Authors
Latin America Program
The Wilson Center’s prestigious Latin America Program provides non-partisan expertise to a broad community of decision makers in the United States and Latin America on critical policy issues facing the Hemisphere. The Program provides insightful and actionable research for policymakers, private sector leaders, journalists, and public intellectuals in the United States and Latin America. To bridge the gap between scholarship and policy action, it fosters new inquiry, sponsors high-level public and private meetings among multiple stakeholders, and explores policy options to improve outcomes for citizens throughout the Americas. Drawing on the Wilson Center’s strength as the nation’s key non-partisan policy forum, the Program serves as a trusted source of analysis and a vital point of contact between the worlds of scholarship and action. Read more
Brazil Institute
The Brazil Institute—the only country-specific policy institution focused on Brazil in Washington—works to foster understanding of Brazil’s complex reality and to support more consequential relations between Brazilian and US institutions in all sectors. The Brazil Institute plays this role by producing independent research and programs that bridge the gap between scholarship and policy, and by serving as a crossroads for leading policymakers, scholars and private sector representatives who are committed to addressing Brazil’s challenges and opportunities. Read more
