Triangular Cooperation between Mexico, Guatemala, Germany: Institutional strengthening of Guatemala’s Secretariat for International Cooperation
Project description
Title: Institutional strengthening of Guatemala’s Secretariat for International Cooperation
Commissioned by: German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
Country: Mexico, Guatemala, Germany
Lead executing agency: Mexico: Directorate General for Planning and International Development Policy (DGPCI) of the Mexican Agency for International Development Cooperation (AMEXCID)
Guatemala: Secretariat for International Cooperation (SCI) of the Presidential Secretariat for Planning and Programming (SEGEPLAN)
Overall term: 2016 to 2018
Context
Alliances between Latin American countries and global partners pursuing common interests are currently being given increasing attention. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development emphasises the importance of global partnerships, while paying special attention to measuring outcomes and results in international development cooperation. It is particularly important that development cooperation be managed effectively if sustainable results are to be achieved.
Guatemala
In order to make its development process sustainable going forward, Guatemala has formulated medium-term and long-term goals in its National Development Plan K'atun 2032 and in its political agenda for 2016–2020. They are designed to improve coordination with donor countries and organisations as well as internal coordination processes. In the 2015 Intergovernmental Agreement and Plan of Action, Guatemala officially reaffirms: recourse to management mechanisms is crucial for the implementation of an efficient national policy on technical development cooperation. This upgrading of technical development cooperation impacts the role and remit of the Presidential Secretariat for Planning and Programming (SEGEPLAN), which has a leading role in its implementation.
Mexico
Over the last five years, Mexico has undergone a transformation process with regard to the institutions implementing national development cooperation. The process was triggered by the adoption and implementation of the International Development Cooperation Act in 2011. German international cooperation activities provide support in the form of technical advisory services.
Objective
The government’s internal coordination processes and SEGEPLAN’s networking with donor countries and organisations to manage Guatemala’s national development cooperation system are supported.
Approach
Germany and Mexico are aiming to reach the objective through the following working lines:
- Creating opportunities for dialogue to identify best practices and lessons learned from how other countries facing similar challenges manage technical development cooperation .
- Advising on the design and implementation of strategies and methods for effective management to monitor and evaluate technical development cooperation projects in Guatemala.
- Advising on the creation of a digital platform for the registration and systematisation of current technical development cooperation activities in Guatemala with a view to optimising information and knowledge management.
Germany is supporting the project through the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and providing methodological advisory services for the strategic implementation of the technical development cooperation policy in Guatemala. Mexico’s contribution is based on the transfer of know-how by AMEXCID. This knowledge is based on experience gained with development policy in Mexico.
Highlights so far include the institutions (SEGEPLAN and AMEXCID) making a number of visits to their partner countries in 2017 and 2018 to promote an exchange of experience with networking with cooperation partners and working with coordination mechanisms. In addition, effective project management measures and experience with the existing national development cooperation systems managed by SEGEPLAN and AMEXCID were divided up across the institutions and the possibility of using them was jointly explored.