The Diplomat
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, announced yesterday in San José, Costa Rica, that Spain will contribute 6.3 million euros, during the period 2021-22, as “direct support” to the action plans of the countries that make up the Central American pact of the Regional Integral Framework for Protection and Solutions (MIRPS).
Sánchez made this announcement during his speech at the event of solidarity towards forcibly displaced persons and the communities that host them in Central America and Mexico, organized in Costa Rica to mobilize international support for the victims of forced displacement in Central America and Mexico. The President of the Government completed yesterday the first day of his two-day trip to Costa Rica, during which he participated in two multilateral meetings: the aforementioned event on displacement and the Spain-SICA Summit.
The solidarity event was convened by Spain, which currently holds the presidency of the MIRPS Support Platform, with the support of the governments of Costa Rica, as pro-tempore Presidency of the Central American Integration System (SICA), and Guatemala, as pro-tempore Presidency of the MIRPS, as well as the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the Organization of American States (OAS), in its capacity as Technical Secretariat of the MIRPS.
The Spanish contribution to this “forgotten crisis” will be channeled through the UNHCR (5.3 million) and through a “pioneering contribution” of one million euros to the OAS MIRPS Fund “that will serve as a catalyst for other contributions”, Sanchez continued during the event, in which the EU also announced an aid of 18.5 million euros, 12 million in the form of humanitarian funding for Central America and 6.5 million as development aid, as reported by the European Commission in a statement. The solidarity event raised at least 90 million euros yesterday.
“With one million forcibly displaced people in the region, the situation is pressing. This reality, moreover, which hits women and minors especially hard, has complex causes; economic, environmental and security, to which COVID-19 adds”, Sanchez said during the event. The MIRPS is made up of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Mexico, Panama, Belize, Guatemala and Honduras, and is supported by UNHCR and the OAS, with the humanitarian objective of addressing the needs of displaced persons and the communities that host them. In recent years, Spain has directed development aid to MIRPS countries to the tune of 350 million euros.
The event was attended by the MIRPS countries, members of the MIRPS Support Platform: Canada, the EU, the United States, ECLAC, the IDB, UNHCR, the OAS, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, France, Switzerland, as well as the Holy See, Germany, Japan, Ireland and the Dominican Republic and international financial institutions and entities such as the ILO, SICA, Rotary International, the WB, CABEI, UNDP, IOM, ICRC and UNICEF.
Following the event, Sánchez participated, together with the presidents of Costa Rica, Guatemala and Honduras, the prime minister of Belize, the vice president of El Salvador, and the foreign ministers of the Dominican Republic and Panama, in the Spain-SICA Summit, which this year celebrates its 30th anniversary. The objective of this meeting was to address sustainable, green and inclusive economic recovery with technological transformation and innovation, and SICA-Spain regional cooperation.
Central America is a priority region for Spain and Spain’s Official Development Assistance to SICA, since 2003, is close to 83 million euros. The Spain-SICA Fund, which this year celebrates its 15th anniversary, works on the following objectives: deepening economic integration; strengthening institutions; supporting the Central American Security Strategy; environmental sustainability, human rights and gender equality.
Prior to the summit, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arancha González Laya, participated in the meeting of SICA foreign ministers, during which the head of Spanish diplomacy expressed Spain’s “commitment to the region”.
