Climate Exchange

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griculture

the Central American Presidents have stressed the need

to manage climate risk as one of the priorities for all

of these countries, as expressed in the Extraordinary

Summit of Heads of State and Government of the SICA

Member Countries in October 2011; 37th Ordinary

Meeting of Heads of State and Government of the SICA

Member Countries in December 2011.

Based on such framework, SICA’s regional tech-

nical secretariats of fisheries, agriculture, risk

management, health, water and sanitation and food

security participate in the process of interpreting the

results of the CA-CO for FNS, placing special empha-

sis on the areas seasonally or chronically affected by

food production or access problems. After 13 years,

the CA-CO reaches hundreds of users directly and

keeps increasing its seasonal demand, as all those

users employ it as a reference resource every three

months for decision-making on diverse activities to

assure food security.

FAPC

Starting in 2006, CRRH and the Regional Program for

Food and Nutrition Security (PREFNSCA), funded

by the European Union, promoted the FAPC for the

purpose of reinterpreting climate outlooks in terms

of climate hazards relevant to the sectors involved

in FNS, and thus became the first users of the FCAC

output. In the FAPC, experts from all those sectors

work with FCAC experts, analysing and taking

ownership of the forecast in order to jointly generate

climate risk scenarios specific to the sectors. Based on

these scenarios, they identify measures for managing

the risk.

The output of the FAPC, a quarterly seasonal outlook,

is disseminated using SICA mechanisms through its

sectoral regional secretariats. These technical secre-

tariats use their networks of government organizations

and ministries, secretariats and cabinets responsible

for food security management, each under their own

mandate, to spread the results of the FCAC and FAPC

for technical and political decision-making regarding

food insecurity.

The PRESANCA II Programme, working with highly

vulnerable communities of Central America, provides

support in several ways, including technical advice. All

PRESANCA activities are intended to solve pre-existing

food insecurity as well as to prevent it. The FAPC serves

as a starting point for discussion at national level, in the

fora currently promoted by PRESISAN-PRESANCA II,

where emphasis is placed on actions intended to avoid

losses on harvesting and basic goods, so the vulnerable

communities can reduce the impact of climate variabil-

ity on their livelihoods.

These fora prioritize seasonal analysis of the implica-

tions and conditions associated with climate variability

and its impacts on the various sectors and on FNS,

depending on the season of the year, with the partici-

pation of private officials and stakeholders who give a

new context to the information.

On the other hand, the component for reaching the users of the

Central America Climate Outlook (CA-CO) has been based on a

clear and concrete report structure, supported by broad electronic

dissemination and the use of graphic resources to share the infor-

mation, including a probability map according to precipitation

scenarios – higher than normal, normal or lower than normal – and

a table of the regions in all countries, according to those scenarios.

This has enabled it to focus the attention of users, whose number

and interest have increased with each new report delivered and

shared with the community.

Since 2000, the FCAC has issued 38 seasonal outlooks, quite

an accomplishment by the Central America Regional Committee

on Hydraulic Resources (CRRH) member countries, through their

NMHSs which contribute specialized human resources, data analy-

sis work and development of services and products to benefit the

region. All of this is facilitated by the logistics management and

coordination of the CRRH Executive Secretariat and supported by

the Central American Integration System (SICA). FCAC technical

meetings have received funding from various donors including the

European Union, the Government of Taiwan, the Government of

Mexico, the Fiduciary Fund of Spain in the WMO and the National

Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, among others.

Supporting the FCAC and FAPC

The ‘Strategic Framework to face the situation of food and nutrition

insecurity associated to conditions of drought and climate change’

approved by the Central American Presidents in December 2002,

placed the mandate to support actions on food security, including the

management of climate risk by all the regional institutions involved.

This strategy adopted the CA-CO as its technical reference for miti-

gating and preventing the impacts of climate variability and change.

It also recognizes the CA-CO as a dependable source of informa-

tion for the governments in the region regarding decision-making

related to reducing vulnerability to climate. In subsequent decisions,

Beneficiaries of the Presanca programme at San Jose Cusmapa preparing a

seedbed guided by facilitators; climate risk scenarios are used to manage

climate risk in the communities

Image: PRESANCA II-SICA