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Clearly defined rules. The Mesoamerican plan will promote cooperation among the countries and facilitate trade by setting down clear-cut rules. Energy exchanges, procedures at border crossings and the smooth flow of vehicles could all be hampered or prevented altogether by the absence of such agreements. Their conclusion will call for a mutual effort on the countries’ part, with the financial and technical support of the international community, to certify each other’s procedures and standardize their regulations.

Faster transport for fresher fruit.

The PPP also encourages cooperation in other fields in which the Mesoamerican countries have similar advantages and vulnerabilities. Many of its initial proposals arose from studies backed by the IDB, ECLAC, and CABEI to identify economic and social projects to further integration among the countries of Central America and among the states in southern and southeastern Mexico.

Many of the projects dealing with sustainable development and human development focus on traditionally marginalized groups, such as campesinos, indigenous peoples, and Afro-Caribbean communities. The proposed initiatives will foster such groups’ participation in projects on environmental management and the sustainable use of natural resources, as well as in the promotion of their own local government institutions.

Projects are also envisioned that will focus on strengthening the Mesoamerican countries’ legal and regulatory frameworks for environmental management, upgrading statistical databases on migration, and creating a regional network of labor-skills trainers, an especially important field in a region where the unemployment rate often reaches 50 percent of the working-age population.

An additional project would focus on controlling contagious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, which are spreading at an explosive rate in some of the region’s poorest areas.

Catastrophe insurance. A project in the area of natural disaster prevention and mitigation will upgrade the quality of the meteorological and hydrological information in this region. This initiative is particularly important for a region where hurricanes, flooding, earthquakes, tidal waves, volcanic eruptions, landslides, forest fires, and drought claim thousands of victims and cause hundreds of millions of dollars in economic damage each year.

In order to reduce the devastating financial effects that natural disasters have on the participating countries, the PPP will promote the development of a catastrophe insurance market to provide coverage for public infrastructure such as highways, bridges, schools, and hospitals. It is expected that this insurance could reduce the need to raise funds for reconstruction, and the premiums may act as an incentive for builders to construct public works more resistant to natural disasters.

Support will also be provided to organize public campaigns to promote measures for reducing the region’s vulnerability to natural hazards. This is particularly important because such disasters usually wreak the greatest havoc among the poor, and their destructive power is often heightened by man’s actions. For example, people build in high-risk areas and remove forest cover, encouraging disasters from flooding and landslides.

Potential for progress. The PPP initiatives seek to translate the integration aspirations of the Mesoamerican region–where good intentions have often been confined to words rather than deeds–into concrete action.

This objective is combined with a healthy dose of fiscal realism. The participating countries are aware of their budgetary constraints and want to conserve scarce resources for high-impact poverty-reduction programs in such social sectors as education and health. Consequently, infrastructure will be financed with private funds whenever possible.

An example is the telecommunications development initiative, which is aimed at upgrading the region’s informatics infrastructure by installing a fiber optics network in the region. This would have to be a private-sector undertaking in which the participating states would act as regulators only.

In the case of the roadway integration initiative, an effort will be made to hold down costs by starting out with improvements to the existing infrastructure in order to facilitate the movement of merchandise and people. This proposal focuses on connecting and rehabilitating the roads making up the Puebla-Panama corridor, most of which follow the route of the Pan-American Highway. In addition, the Atlantic corridor and some of the routes connecting the two coasts will be refurbished.

The PPP also seeks to open up economic opportunities in areas where few now exist. It is hoped that the tourism initiative will encourage investment in projects in which local and especially indigenous and Afro-Caribbean communities are actively involved. This type of tourism, which has a low environmental impact, would help to generate foreign exchange, jobs, and business for micro- and small-scale entrepreneurs in locations that are not included in the usual tourist itineraries. One possible option might be based on what is known as the "Botswana model," where an international hotel company joins with a local community to develop a tourism project that respects the host community’s ethnic and cultural traditions.

One of the key aspects of the Mesoamerican plan will be its information, consultation, and grassroots participation program. This initiative is designed to build upon the local and national dialogues held in a number of the countries in the region to agree upon development projects. Both the participating countries and the international community feel that this initiative will be essential in ensuring that the PPP lasts over time and can continue to incorporate new initiatives for the common good.

In a recent meeting in Washington with the finance ministers of the Mesoamerican countries and the PPP committee members, the President of the IDB underscored the plan’s significance under current world conditions. "We are talking about a vast political initiative to turn Mesoamerica into an area of economic and social cooperation where major presidential agreements will be translated into concrete projects to help the region meet the challenge of globalization," said Iglesias.

Date posted: August 2001