Guatemala and Mexico work in a border strategy

In 2017, Mexico and Guatemala reviewed their bilateral agenda and declared their will to work together to develop a “A Bi-National Strategy for the Development of Border Territory”. With the support of the Secretariat for Planning and Programming of the Presidency of Guatemala (SEGEPLAN) and the Secretariat for Agricultural, Territorial and Urban Development of Mexico (SEDATU).

EUROsociAL+, a programme financed by the European Union, accompanies the two institutions in this process, with the objective of stimulating the transformation of the region’s economy and society through joint actions that generate opportunities for the population and create the conditions necessary for security, as well as economic and social development.

Among the actions underway, the Democratic Governance component of the programme, managed by the FIIAPP, has organised the Workshop on Disaster Prevention, Civil Defence and Post-Event Management Strategies, with special reference to seismic risk. The Workshop, which took place in Tapachula (Chiapas), Mexico, was an opportunity for participating countries to share experience and good practices, as well as to develop group work in order to contribute to the process of designing a Bi-National Border Strategy.

This event reactivated border relations between Mexico and Guatemala and included important presentations on specific issues: the National Centre for the Reduction of Disasters (CENAPRED) and the National Coordinator for the Reduction of Disasters (CONRED) spoke about environmental risks, the Chiapas Civil Defence School or the National Commission on Human Rights Mexico described the role of Civil Defence, and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) focused on systems of governance and promotion of territorial economic development.

Results of these sessions were “recycled” by participants in in four working groups with the support of SEDATU, SEGEPLAN and EUROsociAL+, which also established the orientation of the meeting during the opening session.

Numerous representatives of local government on both sides of the border actively participated in the proposition of all of the issues as well as in the working groups, making the commitment to work together for subsequent implementation of the Strategy.