The European Union funded project will be co-executed by three specialist secretariats of the Central American Integration System (SICA).

San Salvador, El Salvador, July 2, 2019. Central America is classified as a region vulnerable to climate change. In recent years, flood and drought events resulting from climate variability have resulted in millions of dollars in losses and have also caused major social and environmental impacts.

“Central America has made progress in its capacity to address disaster risks, with a better defined institutional framework and improved work strategies, but it needs to continue working to strengthen prevention, especially in the face of complex phenomena such as droughts and floods”, explained Salvador Nieto, Executive Secretary of the Central American Commission on the Environment and Development (CCAD). He made his comment during the launch of the project “Capacity Building for Flood and Drought Disaster Risk Reduction and Promotion of Resilience in Central America”, financed by the European Union’s EUROCLIMA+ Programme, in the context of development cooperation on climate change mitigation and adaptation with Latin America.

The project forms part of the EUROCLIMA+ component on Disaster Risk Management: Droughts and Floods, implemented by the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) and the French Development Agency (AFD). 

“This project is for the Central American region, but the issue concerns the world in general. We believe in the commitment to mitigate climate change and support the efforts of the European Union as a member State,” declared Cristina Aldama, AECID Coordinator in El Salvador.

Through different work components, the project will enhance the preventive approach by strengthening governance in the region on this issue. This includes setting policies, harmonising guidelines for the management of extreme events, increasing knowledge, and developing new tools for more accurate climate predictions.

The initiative will be implemented in a coordinated manner by the three secretariats of the SICA Environmental Subsystem: the Central American Commission for Environment and Development (CCAD/lead institution), the Coordination Centre for Disaster Prevention in Central America and the Dominican Republic (CEPREDENAC/co-executor) and the Regional Committee on Hydraulic Resources (CRRH/co-executor).

“This project demonstrates the effort being made at the level of Central American integration to establish spaces for intersectoral consensus-building, in an effort to develop greater and better capabilities to promote a resilient region with a commitment to its environmental restoration. We wish to highlight the significant partnering provided by the European Union through EUROCLIMA+, together with AECID, who believe in and help to pave the way for the integration of our peoples, explained the Executive Director of the SICA General Secretariat, Werner Vargas.

CCAD Executive Secretary Salvador Nieto, added that “this project is very important since it is consistent with all of our regional policies and strategies; we are satisfied that EUROCLIMA+ is an initiative that takes our national priorities into account, but also the value added that regional components can give to fulfilling the commitments on climate.”

For her part, CEPREDENAC Executive Secretary Claudia Herrera emphasised that “coordinated work by the three institutions (CCAD, CEPREDENAC and CRRH) will generate spaces for coordination beyond the activities proposed in the project; in addition, the coordination that exists with the focal points of EUROCLIMA+ and with our national authorities in the regulatory bodies is something valuable, since it involves uniting efforts and establishing synergies and complementarities in our actions.”

A similar view was expressed by Berta Olmedo, Executive Secretary of CRRH, who said she felt “very satisfied that the three secretariats of the environmental subsystem have been able to integrate their actions, as a whole, within the project”.

At the end of the two-year implementation process, major results are expected to include the following:

1.  National flood and drought policies and regional guidelines.
2. Comprehensive plans that include disaster risk management, early warning systems and communication protocols for issuing warnings (national and regional).
3. Virtual Severe Weather Centre to support timely decision making in the event of any threats.

The project launch was chaired by the Executive Director of SG-SICA, Werner Vargas, with the participation of CCAD Executive Secretary Salvador Nieto; CEPREDENAC Executive Secretary Claudia Herrera; CRRH Executive Secretary Berta Olmedo; and the AECID Coordinator in El Salvador Cristina Aldama.

About projects for the Disaster Risk Reduction and Management: Droughts and Floods component of the European Union’s EUROCLIMA+ Programme

The projects approved under this component are aimed at substantially reducing the level of disaster (related to droughts and floods) and they contribute to the objectives and action priorities stated in the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, primarily by strengthening the governance and resilience of societies. In addition, particular attention is paid to the needs expressed by the countries in their NDCs (or in other national policies and plans to address climate change).

See the descriptions of the projects

About EUROCLIMA+

EUROCLIMA+  is a programme funded by the European Union to promote environmentally sustainable and climate-resilient development in 18 Latin American countries, particularly for the benefit of the most vulnerable populations. The Programme is implemented under the synergistic work of seven agencies: Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), French Development Agency (AFD), Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Expertise France (EF), International and Ibero-American Foundation for Administration and Public Policies (FIIAPP), German Society for International Development Cooperation (GIZ), and UN Environment.

This programme receives co-financing from the federal government of Germany through the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) as well as the governments of France and Spain.

Press contacts

For information about EUROCLIMA+, contact Alexandra Cortés: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

For information about EUROCLIMA+’s Risk Management component, write to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

For information about the project “Building Capacity for Drought and Flood Disaster Risk Management and Promoting Resilience in Central America”, go to  https://www.euroclima.org/en/projects-risk/item/435-central-america-encouranging-resilience  or contact Gandhi Montoya, CCAD communication: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.