GVEP Assessment in Latin America and Caribbean
15 December 2006 - Eight Latin American countries (six GVEP countries: Guatemala, Honduras, Dominican Republic, Peru, Bolivia, Mexico and two non-GVEP countries: Nicaragua and El Salvador) participated in GVEP’s LAC meeting on the 12th and 13th December which was hosted by GTZ and held in Antigua, Guatemala. The meeting was a chance for GVEP countries to exchange and pool their experiences to date and to help draft GVEP’s new LAC strategy, and for non-GVEP countries to learn more about the GVEP programme. GVEP’s development partners UNDP, USAID, World Bank and OAS also supported the meeting.
The LAC Meeting in Antigua was held to collect and document the activities which have been carried out in six GVEP countries over the past three years. Two non-GVEP countries (Nicaragua and El Salvador) also expressed an interest in learning more about the GVEP programme and attended the event. One of GVEP’s major partners Brazil was unable to attend the meeting however Brazil has expressed its strong desire to support and assist GVEP Partners with their rural energy development programmes and wishes to play an active south-south role in GVEP’s new regional strategy.
Each country presented their own experience to date in energy and development and also more specifically the activities which have been carried out within the GVEP Programme, ranging from energy action planning to the formation of multi-sectoral committees and the implementation of pilot projects on the ground. The countries then made recommendations for future GVEP activities in the region and these will be transformed into action plans for each country within an overall regional strategy early in 2007. Common themes for this strategy were identified such as energy for productive use, microfinance and the establishment of sustainable energy access funds for small businesses.
This meeting forms part of GVEP’s ongoing activity evaluation and review which is looking not only at GVEP’s past and future activities in the LAC region but also in Asia and Africa. The conclusions of this review will be available early next year.