RUTA TOWARDS THE FUTURE

 

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RUTA continues working for the rural populations of Central America


RUTA defines its strategic activities for next year

The five strategic activities for the next twelve months will be: the study on CAFTA’s impact on the rural sector, the Central American Agricultural Policy, strengthening rural organizations for policy dialogue, harmonization of cooperation and knowledge management and communications.

RUTA has already outlined its strategic work plan for the period July 2006 -June 2007, corresponding to the final year of its Phase 5 operations. The strategic activities were defined and agreed upon during RUTA’s Fifth Supervision Mission, which took place in Panama City and San Jose, Costa Rica, on May 22 - 26 of this year.

The Mission recommended that RUTA focus on a limited number of activities, including the Free Trade Agreement between the United States and Central America (DR-CAFTA), adding value to the analytical work carried out by the agencies, generating or consolidating public policy discussions with governments and civil society on the issues of rural poverty alleviation, agricultural policy and knowledge management as an instrument to support any achievements that might be obtained.

The staff of RUTA’s seven member agencies - the World Bank, IDB, DFID, FAO, IFAD, IICA and IFPRI - participated intensively in the analysis. The meeting served to underscore RUTA’s important role in organizing activities that provide key technical documentation to public and private sector organizations to meet the challenges faced by Central America’s rural sector.

In this regard, RUTA’s task is to generate or identify relevant information and then disseminate it through publications, documents, workshops and conferences (including virtual events) to enable the target audience to appropriate the contents.

“To fulfill its role, RUTA acts as a processor and transmitter of information, as a “retailer” in the dissemination of methodologies developed by its partners, as a facilitator of dialogue, as a leader on important regional issues and as a trainer, among other actions”, explained Miguel Gómez, Director of RUTA.

Study on the impact of DR-CAFTA on Central America’s rural sector

This was defined as the first strategic topic on which RUTA should continue working during the final year of Phase 5. The study on the impact of the Free Trade Agreement with the United States (DR-CAFTA) has been under way since 2005 and RUTA has played a major role in facilitating discussion on this issue with key actors of the public and private sectors, professional associations and research centers in Central America. The study is led by IFPRI with the participation of all RUTA partner institutions.

Central American Agricultural Policy

Work on this task began recently in response to an explicit request by the Central American Agriculture Ministers; RUTA has been accompanying this effort during the last few months. As part of the process, a large number of key actors are being consulted in each country and also at the regional level. It is expected that the Central American Agricultural Policy will be ready at the beginning of 2007. This work is mainly being supported by RUTA and the IFAD team at RUTA; the other partners are expected to provide greater support in the coming months.