Introducing our Regional Facilitator for Latin America, Mónica López:
What is your professional experience?
I´m a lawyer and hold a Master's degree in Political Sciences. For the past 3 years, I've been working on environmental issues, mostly related to climate change and in specific the UNFCCC climate change negotiations. As Climate Change Advocacy Officer at the Humboldt Center in Nicaragua, I am then the SUSWATCH (Sustainability Watch) delegate to the UNFCCC climate talks. However, I am also very active in other networks. These include two SV networks, CANLA (Climate Action Network, Latin America) and the Accra Caucus on Forests and Climate Change, but also the Nicaraguan Alliance to face Climate Change (ANACC).
What's your personal background?
I'm believe in the importance of involving citizens in public and political matters and that's why I've dedicate most of my time, including the "free" time, to do so since I was 18 years old. However, when I do take a weekend off to spoil myself, I play football, listen to my nephew's ideas, have a good meal with my family, do painting, go into nature with my friends or simply take care of the garden plants.
What are the challenges of for SV climate policy networks in Latin America?
It varies a lot how the impacts of climate change is felt between and within different Latin American countries. However, emissions vary just as much within the region. This implies that the demands and proposals of Latin American civil society organizations really vary from country to country. The challenge is then to strengthen the cooperation among these organization. Above all, we must identify and strenghten linkages between our national work and not just at the international level such as the UNFCCC.
How can cross-learning help to meet those challenges?
The SUSWATCH network covers Central America, including one member organization in Bolivia, while the other SV network in the region, CANLA, covers most countries in South America. To facilitate further learning and cooperation between the climate policy work in Central and South America would then create some important synergies throughout the region. So far, this process has been difficult and highly expensive due to the great distances of the region. With the help of the Southern Voices programme, we could finally be able to attain this objective through the use of internet-based tools and online communication.
What steps have been taken so far?
SUSWATCH and CANLA have been collaborating with each other for more than 2 years. We are building on this previous experience. An online questionnaire will be sent out shortly in order to map networks in the region and their learning demands. Soon we will also start to plan for our regional workshop. News will follow!
What are the next steps?
The results of the network mapping will be presented at the upcoming CANLA General Assembly (first week of April). Meanwhile, I will call for a SUSWATCH meeting to present the results. Hopefully, the two meetings will provide guidance for the expected learning outcomes of the regional workshop which we expect to have by mid-2013, back-to-back with a SUSWATCH workshop on REDD+.