Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua · 14 December, 2020

The governing bodies of the Housing and Human Settlements Sector of the SICA region support the Recovery Plan supported by the European Union

The EUROsociAL+ Programme has provided European and Latin American expertise for the generation of a New Urban Agenda, which will contribute to mitigating the consequences of the pandemic and storms Eta and Iota.

Ministers of Housing and Human Settlements endorsed the Plan for the Recovery, Social Reconstruction and Resilience of Central America and the Dominican Republic, and expressed their approval of the project profiles contemplated in Axis 3 that addresses the issues of human settlements and sustainable urban development, supported by the European Union EUROsociAL+ Programme.

One of its purposes of this Plan is to support the generation of transformations that contribute to creating resilience in the population of the countries, including 3 interventions in its axis that will support the development of resilient human settlements and cities.

“This document collects the initiatives and suggestions to address the COVID-19 emergency, which is what is impacting all countries economically. This is an opportunity to build a more resilient SICA region,” said Olivia Cano, Co-Director of the Institute of Urban and Rural Housing of Nicaragua (INVUR) and Pro Tempore President of the CCVAH.

The Ministers expressed their commitment to supporting the final formulation of the projects and their subsequent implementation, the dissemination of the plan and the search for resources for its execution.

“I would like to acknowledge the efforts of all, thank the valuable contribution and support of the European Union and UN Habitat for all that has been done,” said the Vice Minister of Urban Development and Housing of Guatemala, Carlos Armendariz.

The process of formulating the Plan has been carried out taking into consideration the inputs and work priorities collected through a broad process of consultation with the different governing bodies of the thematic axes related to the projects proposed in the Plan; in particular, the proposals that make up axis 3 have taken into consideration the technical contributions provided by the institutions that make up the CCVAH.

This Plan contributes to mitigating the consequences of the pandemic and storms Eta and Iota, which have generated greater challenges in order to achieve the objectives of the New Urban Agenda, making joint work even more pertinent and necessary as a regional bloc to leverage national efforts in favour of access to safe housing for the entire population and the achievement of sustainable urban development, highlighting within the regional efforts to carry out the search and establishment of alliances with development partners that allow a greater attraction of technical and financial cooperation and an increase in external financing under fair conditions.

This Plan had the valuable support of the European Union, through its EUROsociAL+ Programme for Social Cohesion in Latin America, as well as the technical review of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the United Nations Programme for Human Settlements UN Habitat.

Country: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua
SDG: Sustainable cities and communities, Peace, justice and strong institutions
Policy area: Democratic governance policies, Gender equality policies, Social policies