July 18, 2023.- On June 28, 2023, Universidad de la Frontera presented in a virtual event the “Diagnosis on the participation of rural and indigenous entrepreneurship in productive chains: towards the construction of a strategy that promotes the participation of women, particularly rural women, in these areas”.

The study was conducted by the Universidad de la Frontera (UFRO) within the framework of the 2022 call of the Pacific Alliance Cooperation Fund, in which the PA Gender Technical Group (GTG) obtained funding for the project.

The event was attended by Camilo Rosas Flores, director of the IDER-UFRO Institute, Verónica Torres Barriga, IDER-UFRO professional, Catalina Garrido Higuera, IDER-UFRO professional and project coordinator and Laura Soto Arroyave, GTG coordinator.

The expert presented the main results of the study and highlighted the participation of female employment in foreign trade, the barriers faced by rural women entrepreneurs, as well as opportunities and strengths, in addition to good practices developed from public policies, among others. In addition, Garrido indicated that the results can be viewed in detail by downloading them from the Pacific Alliance’s web platform.

This study is in line with the priority actions and goals set out in the Roadmap for the autonomy and economic empowerment of women in the Alliance and its implementation plan, as well as the Presidential Declaration of the Pacific Alliance on Gender Equality and the Declaration of Bahía Málaga, in which the GTG was instructed to implement an action plan to promote greater participation of companies led by women in productive chains, with special emphasis on rural women’s entrepreneurship.

It is worth noting that this diagnosis will serve as a basis, together with the results obtained at the First Ministerial Meeting for the Autonomy and Economic Empowerment of Women held in 2022, for the formulation and consolidation of a strategy that meets the mandate of the Declaration of Bahía Málaga and promotes greater participation of rural women’s entrepreneurship in the value chains of the Pacific Alliance.

July 18, 2023 – On July 12, the Pacific Alliance Technical Subgroup for Measurement, Reporting and Verification (SGT-MRV) presented the results of the study ‘Devaluation and competitiveness in the carbon market’, which was prepared by the Mexican consulting firm Mercado Ambiental. The work, which received financial support from Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), is contextualized in the coordination framework of the SGT-MRV and responds to a request from delegates of the Alliance countries to understand the implications of various economic variables (such as exchange rate, inflation and growth, among others) on the design and implementation of carbon pricing instruments.

The study focused on the three countries that already have at least one carbon pricing instrument in place, such as Chile, Colombia and Mexico. In this regard, the exhibitors of Mercado Ambiental, Gerardo Ramirez and Luis Colin, highlighted:

• In macroeconomic terms, it is recommended that the design of future carbon price instruments should consider the effects of inflation and the exchange rate. In the first, adjusting periodically (e.g. annually) to the purchasing value considering some price index, and in the second, if it is fixed in foreign currency (e.g. US dollar) considering the appreciation or depreciation of the local currency with respect to the dollar. These are the variables that most influence carbon prices and markets in the Pacific Alliance countries.

• The successful implementation of a carbon price instrument, as well as the efficient operation of carbon markets, requires coordinated inter-institutional work, mainly between ministries of finance and ministries of environment.

• An adequate carbon price can encourage investments in cleaner technologies and financial flows that can be directed to climate change mitigation and adaptation projects. It is therefore necessary to ensure that measures to control inflation and devaluation do not interfere with climate goals (and vice versa).

• With the growing interest in participating in international markets or in cooperation mechanisms such as Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, priority sectors must be defined for the implementation of mitigation projects, as well as strengthening institutional capacities and ensuring clear and transparent rules.

• With the current context of carbon pricing instruments, it is possible to visualize a potential regional carbon market with Chile, Colombia and Mexico as demand generators and Peru and Ecuador as reduction supply generators. This could allow the Pacific Alliance to take advantage of opportunities for emissions reductions, while enhancing regional cooperation.

A recording of the webinar can be accessed at the following link:

https://zoom.us/rec/share/DQ-nGp4-w7ffyJtzSzt9Blq9CxJLhPS-bch51tmVzgUP2EkbjmeMh2o1izBk9SHJ.CvZq0I8UGLhyqrJw

Passcode: #4EB8Y@0

July 17, 2023.- On June 27, 2023, the Institute of International Studies of the University of Chile presented in a virtual event the “Diagnosis and strategy for the participation of women in leadership and decision-making positions in the international and trade negotiations of the Pacific Alliance”.

The study was carried out by experts Alicia Frohmann and Ximena Olmos within the framework of the 2022 call of the Pacific Alliance Cooperation Fund, in which the PA Gender Technical Group (GTG) obtained funding for the realization of the project.

The event was attended by Dorotea López, Director of the Institute, and Norka Olivares, representative of the GTG, the former Director of ECLAC’s Gender Affairs Division, Sonia Montaño Virreira, and the Head of the UN WOMEN Chile Office, Gabriela Rosero Moncayo.

The experts presented the main results of the study, and emphasized that the representation and participation of women in politics and decision-making are conditions for achieving gender equality and adequate democratic governance.

The realization of this study is in accordance with the priority actions and goals set out in the Roadmap for the autonomy and economic empowerment of women in the Alliance and its implementation plan. For the GTG, it was necessary to conduct an analysis that would make it possible to observe the situation of women’s participation in leadership positions in the Pacific Alliance.

The experts and authors explained that this study was carried out through an online survey of people registered in the Alliance’s directory of technical groups 2022; in-depth interviews with negotiators; review of national instruments that promote gender equality and women’s leadership as good practices in each of the member countries of the Alliance, as well as interviews with various people involved in the PA.

The study analyzes various factors that affect women’s participation such as: care work, gender-based violence against women, access to training and skills development, among others.

July 14, 2023.- On Wednesday, July 5, the member countries of the Pacific Alliance, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru jointly inaugurated the Youth Volunteer Program of the Pacific Alliance 2023, in order to generate a space for common participation and integration among the selected volunteers.

The inauguration of the Program was attended by the national director of the National Youth Institute of Chile, Juan Pablo Duhalde; the coordinator of South and Triangular Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Colombia, Lina Marcela Puentes; the presidential advisor for Youth, Colombia Joven, Gabriela Posso Restrepo; the general director of the Mexican Youth Institute, Guillermo Rafael Santiago Rodríguez; and the national secretary of Youth of Peru, Luis Humberto Ñañez.

During the opening event, the young participants were very enthusiastic and emphasized that being Pacific Alliance volunteers is “an opportunity to structurally understand the problems of the region and face them from our cultures”.

The Youth Volunteer Program of the Pacific Alliance 2023, face-to-face modality, seeks to give continuity to the efforts to promote experiential exchange through activities that form solidarity behaviors in young people, which have a positive impact on society, taking into account that youth is a key player in the region.

This year, the program is being developed through four projects, one for each country: Chile’s project, Youth Activists: feminism and memory; Colombia’s project, Environmental Volunteering: Youth Weaving Agroecologies for Peace; Mexico’s project, “Voluntad Joven: De Juventudes y Chinampas”; and Peru’s project, A-Gente de Cambio: Promotion of mental health of adolescents and their community.

Depending on the dates of each project, volunteers must travel to the city/country of the project for which they were selected, since the execution of volunteer activities will last up to 20 days.

It should be noted that this year, the program received a total of 1,785 applications from young people from the four countries.

More information: https://voluntariado.alianzapacifico.net/

Starting today, Wednesday, June 28^th, Chile will hold the Pro Tempore Presidency of the Pacific Alliance (PA). This decision was adopted at a meeting held in Santiago, Chile, where the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Chile, Alberto van Klaveren; the Ambassador of Mexico in Chile, Alicia Bárcena; the Chargé d’Affaires a.i. from Peru in Chile, Renzo Villa Prado; and the Chargé d’Affaires a.i. from Colombia in Chile, René Correa Rodríguez took part.

In this significant meeting, the authorities of Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru reaffirmed their commitment to the Pacific Alliance as a mechanism for political articulation, economic and commercial integration, cooperation and projection to the world, which seeks to progressively move towards free circulation of goods, services, capital and people, with a view to boosting the growth and competitiveness of economies, for the benefit of its inhabitants.

(Unofficial translation)

This June 6, nearly 300 Professional Technical Education (PTE) teachers from Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru began their training process in digital skills, promoted by the OEI, which will end on August 1 with the holding of an international seminar.

The Organization of Ibero-American States for Education, Science and Culture (OEI) has begun last Tuesday, June 6, a training course in digital skills, aimed at teachers who are dedicated to the technical-professional modality of the Pacific Alliance countries: Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru.

The course, which is part of the project “Training of Professional Technical Education Teachers (ETP) in countries of the Pacific Alliance”, and which has the financial support of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), has the objective to promote the skills, abilities and digital competences of the participating teachers in their teaching practice, based on modules on basic computer science notions or the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the classroom, as well as the use of digital platforms and creation of educational resources. Likewise, the participating teachers will develop some pedagogical techniques related to new technologies.

The course will conclude on August 1 with the presentation of the best intervention proposals that teachers will prepare for their educational centers —one per country— in a virtual international seminar entitled “Strengthening Digital Competences in Professional Education and Training Teachers from countries of the Pacific Alliance”.

The training has been designed and is delivered through the Ibero-American Training and Learning Institute for Cooperation of the OEI, which works jointly and in coordination with the administrations of the member countries at all levels for the implementation of this initiative.

• More than one hundred women dedicated to fishing and aquaculture from Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru participated in the webinar “Working for a women network in fishing and aquaculture of the Pacific Alliance: supporting the innovation and commercialization of their products” , which was organized by the Pacific Alliance and the Undersecretary of Fisheries and Aquaculture of Chile, was carried out as the first post-pandemic activity, to convene the fishermen and aquaculture network of these countries, created before COVID-19, with the objective to get to know each other and establish ties with commercial potential.

May 31, 2023.- The webinar held on May 25 through the zoom platform, is part of the project “Promoting the commercialization and the consumption of artisanal fishing and aquaculture products in the Pacific Alliance, in order to help mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic “, and was attended by an audience of more than one hundred people, who enjoyed the program of the meeting, which began with the official greeting of the General Director (S) of Multilateral Economic Affairs, Undersecretary of International Economic Relations, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Chile, Alejandro Buvinic, followed by the Director of the International Affairs Unit, Fisheries Development Division of the Undersecretary of Fisheries and Aquaculture of Chile, Julio Jorquera, who addressed the topic: “Chile’s proposal and promotion of the Pacific Alliance Women’s Fisheries and Aquaculture Network.”

The central talk of the webinar was given by Luisa Fernanda Gutiérrez Sampedro, a Colombian national, business administrator and specialist in Finance, with an extensive career that begins in the world of banks that she directed in Colombia, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic, where she warned that the natural added value that women generate with their management was something that was worth supporting from what she knows how to do, rescuing this experience that combines with the path of supporting the formation of family businesses; projects and initiatives that have the purpose of contributing to the sustainability of the territories in Latin America with a feminine perspective, being key actors of local and community development.

Luisa Fernanda Gutiérrez Sampedro, gave her presentation from Bogotá, Colombia, called “The value of associativity.”

The Women’s Fisheries and Aquaculture Network of the Pacific Alliance has a face. For this reason, the project contemplates the production of microcapsules with testimonials from women in fishing and aquaculture from the Pacific Alliance who represent inspiring leaders.

In this context, during the webinar two of the leaders were presented, they will be part of the testimonies of the microcapsules of the member countries and who are preparing to make visible the Pacific Alliance Women’s Fisheries and Aquaculture Network: Rosa Esther Canelo Oré, from Caleta Laguna Grande, Paracas, Pisco, Peru, and Paola Núñez Rojas, from the Puesta de Sol Women Shellfish Cooperative, Las Cruces, Chile.

The webinar ” Working for a women network in fishing and aquaculture of the Pacific Alliance: supporting the innovation and commercialization of their products”, was the first of two virtual meetings, which are carried out within the framework of the project “Promoting the commercialization and the consumption of artisanal fishing and aquaculture products in the Pacific Alliance, in order to help mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic”, led by the Pacific Alliance and the Undersecretary of Fisheries and Aquaculture of Chile. The next virtual meeting is scheduled for June 28.

Find the webinar at the following link:

https://alianzapacifico.net/grupotecnico-de-pesca/

• After five years of work since its inception, the Pacific Alliance Technical Subgroup for Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (SGT-MRV) will add Ecuador as a guest country to continue working regionally under this South-South cooperation scheme towards systems operational and sustainable MRV.

May 22, 2023.- On May 24, 25 and 26, the sixth face-to-face meeting of the Pacific Alliance (PA) Technical Subgroup for Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (SGT-MRV) will take place. During the first day of this meeting, climate policy and MRV systems by country will be addressed in an open session, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) will share the regional panorama in terms of carbon prices and the institutional presentation will be made of the International Emission Trading Association (IETA) and Conservation International as new allies of SGT-MRV. This event will be broadcast on ECLAC’s YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPWS1Xouw8E

Among those attending this sixth meeting will be representatives of all the countries that make up the Pacific Alliance and Ecuador as a guest country, representatives of Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), of Gold Standard as the implementing entity of the program and of the coordination of the SGT-MRV, who will discuss progress in the harmonization and convergence of GHG emissions MRV systems, mitigation actions, carbon price instruments and climate financing.

In this second phase of work of the SGT-MRV, which began in 2022 and ends in 2026, efforts have focused on exchanges and technical studies, capacity development, and implementation pilots in each country of this regional alliance.

Are you an artisanal fisherman, small-scale fish farmer or do you carry out related activities?

We invite you to participate in the webinar to reactivate the Women Network in Fisheries and Aquaculture of the Pacific Alliance, within the framework of the project “Promote the commercialization and consumption of artisanal fishing and aquaculture products in the Pacific Alliance, in order to help mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic”.

It will be a virtual meeting, on Thursday, May 25:

• 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. in Chile
• 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. in Peru/Colombia
• 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. Mexico City

Register at the following link and you will receive an email with a personalized and non-transferable invitation to participate in the event.

https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_DTP86p4TTOuv4kNfynNhmA

Sign up to secure space

We are waiting for you!

This webinar is coordinated by the Fishing and Aquaculture Technical Group and executed by the University of Concepción and Fundación Bordemar de Chile.

May 10, 2023.- As part of the work of the Pacific Alliance MRV Technical Subgroup (SGT-MRV) and with the technical support of the Gold Standard and financial support from Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), this May 10, 2023, the fourth and last session of the first series of technical workshops on the implementation of Article 6 of the Paris Agreement was held. This session was also open to the participation of the MRV Community of Practice and brought together close to 90 attendees from the public and private sectors from Latin America and other regions.

The presentation of the contents was in charge of Hugh Salway, Head of Markets and Alliances of Gold Standard. The main objective of the workshop was to review and reinforce the three key elements addressed in the previous technical sessions with the delegates of the Pacific Alliance countries. Specifically about:

1. International Transfer Mitigation Results Authorization (ITMO)
2. Appropriate settings, and
3. Registry and registry interoperability

The complete material of each session is available under the heading workshops in the SGT-MRV section on the official website of the Pacific Alliance: https://alianzapacifico.net/grupotecnico-medio-ambiente/

The session included welcoming remarks by Berioska Quispe, Director of Greenhouse Gas Mitigation of the Ministry of the Environment of Peru, who highlighted the importance of opening discussions on the implementation of Article 6 of the Paris Agreement in the region, as well as to share experiences and advances with other jurisdictions. He also highlighted Peru’s progress with the pre-publication of the regulation for the National Registry of Mitigations (RENAMI) of Peru, which is in the process of addressing the suggestions of the public consultation to which it was recently submitted. Along the same lines, he indicated that the operationalization of the bilateral agreement signed between Peru and Switzerland in the exploration of Article 6 mechanisms is under internal discussion.

Finally, it should be noted that the SGT-MRV coordination invited the participants to join the MRV Community of Practice through the LinkedIn group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12483716/ and stated the purpose of join efforts to move towards a ‘MRV Collaborative Laboratory’. At the end of the day, about 30 people joined to make a total of 160 members.