Day: April 26, 2024

Digepres receives representatives from the French Agency to discuss governance and climate action issues

The meeting served to share initiatives and implement future green budgeting and gender mainstreaming actions. The Director of the General Directorate of Budget, José Rijo Presbot, received a mission from the French Development Agency (AFD) in a meeting that laid the groundwork for identifying and evaluating financing and technical cooperation needs for a green budget transition. The meeting also provided an opportunity to address aspects related to gender mainstreaming and progress, needs, and challenges linked to the climate change expenditure classification. The welcoming remarks were delivered by the Director of Budget, who thanked the mission for its visit and emphasized the importance of combating and adapting to climate change. Rijo Presbot was accompanied by Digepres directors, including Odilys Hidalgo, Head of the Budget Services Directorate; Griselda Gómez, Director of the Quality and Evaluation of Budget Management Directorate; Rafael Jovine, Director of Economic Studies; and Paola Chaljub, Head of the Communications Department. Ana Miguelina Terrero, head of the Performance Evaluation department; Jhannet Taveras, head of the Economic Services department; and the AFD mission, comprised of Varinia Tromben, a public finance expert, and Sara Davo Boza, head of energy, climate, and sustainable finance projects, were present. José Rijo Presbot explained to the mission the government's economic actions, outlined the importance and benefits of tax reform, and reiterated that the General Directorate of Budget supports joint climate initiatives. Varinia Tromben, in her presentation, explained the agency's interest in strengthening the dialogue on public policies between the French Development Agency (AFD) and the Budget Office regarding sustainability from various perspectives. She also outlined the mission's intention to forge agreements that will lead to technical assistance and service offerings for implementing the green budget transition and other related issues. "France has extensive experience in international cooperation on green budgeting, and the AFD provides financial and technical support for this topic," Tromben explained. She also listed the cross-cutting themes that the AFD defines to achieve this objective. For his part, Rafael Jovine, in his presentation, explained to the mission aspects and data from the Results-Based Budgeting Network meeting, which focused its agenda on environmental issues through the experiences of participating countries. He also outlined the actions that the Budget Office has been developing on this topic. Meanwhile, Griselda Gómez highlighted the work of the implementing units, the importance of gender mainstreaming to continue contributing to reducing inequality gaps in the country, and the need to strengthen technical capacities to carry out the processes and arguments presented. Regarding the Budget Directorate (Digepres) and environmental actions, it was noted that the Budget Directorate has a Conceptual Model System for Identifying and Classifying Public Spending on Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management and has developed actions to combat climate change in coordination with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), as well as sustainable initiatives to raise awareness and sensitivity to environmental issues among its staff. The event took place in the Budget Directorate's office.