Addressing a summit in Washington, Laura Suazo, Secretary of Agriculture of Honduras, stresses the importance of international financing to tackle climate change

Washington, 15 May 2023 (IICA) – Secretary of Agriculture and Livestock of Honduras, Laura Suazo, participated in a major global summit, seeking support for national policies to mitigate and adapt to climate change – a phenomenon that severely affects small farmers in her Central American country. The Summit was jointly organized by the United States and COP28 host country, the United Arab Emirates.
 
“Honduras has established a very sophisticated legal framework to address climate change, but lacks the financing to implement it”, said Suazo, speaking at the AIM for Climate (Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate) Summit in Washington, which brought together public policymakers, industry leaders, farmers, civil society representatives and researchers from across the world.
 
During the three-day meeting, which also enjoyed the participation of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) and other international organizations, it was announced that investments to foster agrifood system innovation and promote climate smart agriculture are steadily increasing worldwide, thanks to public and private sector collaboration.
 
Suazo, who chairs IICA’s Executive Committee and is the first women at the helm of the Secretariat of Agriculture and Livestock of Honduras, was a speaker in the panel discussion on “Innovation for Integrating and Mainstreaming Agriculture in the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) - Lessons Learned from Africa, Asia and Latin America”. NDCs are the contributions to climate change mitigation and adaptation to which each country commits under the Paris Agreement, adopted in 2015.
 
Other speakers in the event were Manuel Otero, the Director General of IICA; Dina Espósito, Assistant to the Administrator of the Bureau for Resilience and Food Security at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID); Josefa Sacko, Commissioner for Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy and Sustainable Environment at the African Union Commission; and Bill Hohenstein, the Director of the Office of Energy and Environmental Policy at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).
 
Suazo was also a speaker on the “Innovation for Inclusive Impact: Putting Women at the Heart of Our Food System Investments” panel discussion, along with Marie-Claude Bibeau, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada; and Isobel Coleman, Deputy Administrator of USAID.
 
“Honduras cannot disregard our country’s stark social reality. This event is an ideal opportunity to reiterate the importance of having a clear and precise state policy on food security, while also adding value and improving aspects of trade, through an approach that prioritizes the creation of better opportunities for small farmers affected by extreme climate change-related events”, said Suazo.  
 
Agricultural education  
 
Suazo also utilized her presence at the AIM for Climate Summit in Washington to discuss Honduras’ implementation of an agricultural education project in partnership with Michael Kremer, Harvard University Professor of Economics, who also won the 2019 Nobel Prize for Economics and is an IICA Goodwill Ambassador for Sustainable Development.
 
The Secretary reflected that, to a great extent, agricultural transformations occur due to cultural factors.
 
She pointed out that, “To change agriculture, we must change culture, because climate change is not just an issue of temperatures, but also of decisions that we all make, based on our traditions, norms, values and economic needs. Culture influences farmers’ practices, companies’ agendas and consumer preferences”.
 
Suazo explained to the Washington summit that Honduras has made significant headway in developing a legal framework to tackle climate change but faces major challenges today in terms of coordinating and legislating mitigation and adaptation efforts”.
 
She stressed the urgency of defining indicators to measure the impact of the policies and actions that have been applied, insisting that, “We cannot continue to participate in international conferences and negotiations, if we are unable to measure the extent to which production has been impacted by our actions in collaboration with IICA and other international organizations that are working with us”.

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