The Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) has secured unanimous, broad backing from its member states for its long-term strategic roadmap through 2030, during the first official working gathering between newly installed Director-General Muhammad Ibrahim and national agricultural representatives at a meeting of the Special Advisory Commission on Management Issues (SACMI).
SACMI acts as a permanent consultative body for IICA’s top governing structures, creating a structured space for ongoing open dialogue between member nation representatives and the institute’s leadership. This May 2026 session marked Ibrahim’s first formal engagement with ministry delegates from across the hemisphere since he assumed office earlier this year. Per an official IICA statement, this year’s commission was selected by the institute’s Executive Committee in adherence to geographic representation principles, and includes delegates from eight nations: Argentina, The Bahamas, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Panama, and the United States.
During the meeting, Ibrahim updated attending delegates on the progress of drafting IICA’s 2026-2030 Medium-term Plan (MTP), the document that will shape the organization’s core work across the next five years. The plan is centered on cementing IICA’s role as a critical strategic partner for all American nations across four high-priority focus areas: bolstering regional food security, driving inclusive rural economic growth, advancing environmental sustainability in agriculture, and building systemic resilience to global shocks.
Ibrahim also walked attendees through a series of outreach and engagement activities he has led since the start of 2026, including multiple working visits to nations across the region. During these trips, he held discussions with national agricultural ministers and senior officials to align on shared sector priorities, and also held productive talks with stakeholders from the private sector, smallholder and industrial farmer organizations, and regional agricultural development financial institutions.
Representatives from all participating member states voiced enthusiastic support for the proposed strategic direction, highlighting the plan’s alignment with national and regional priorities. Donald Willard, an International Trade Specialist at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) speaking on behalf of the U.S. government, commended IICA’s ongoing work and called for expanded technical cooperation to support farmers, strengthen food security, boost agricultural productivity, and increase the competitiveness of the hemisphere’s agrifood sector.
Willard noted in his remarks, “The implementation of the Medium-term Plan will deliver tangible results for the region. IICA fills a central role in building coordinated hemispheric coalitions that allow us to respond collectively to international trade measures that impact our producers, such as the European Union’s Deforestation Regulation.” Closing his statement, he emphasized, “We must collaborate with IICA and fellow member states to prevent and eradicate crop and livestock diseases that threaten food production, and to fend off unfair trade barriers for our producers. This is our shared hemisphere, and the United States stands ready to work collectively toward shared goals.”
Canada also formally endorsed the proposed strategic plan. Daryl Nearing, Deputy Director of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, drew particular attention to the plan’s strong focus on science-driven innovation, trade expansion, and agricultural and biosecurity health. “We greatly value that IICA has prioritized integrating science and innovation into agricultural practice to help farmers increase production and raise their incomes. IICA is an incredibly powerful instrument to support all of our agricultural producers across the region,” Nearing explained.
Lourdes Cruz, Director General of Multilateral Affairs at Mexico’s Secretariat of Agriculture and Rural Development (SADER), noted that bilateral discussions between Mexico and Ibrahim since his appointment have already yielded productive outcomes that benefit broader regional agricultural development. “For Mexico, one particularly valuable feature of the 2026-2030 Medium-term Plan is its explicit recognition of regional diversity, given the enormous heterogeneity of agricultural sectors across every corner of the hemisphere,” Cruz stressed.
Panama’s representative Diana de Guinard, Head of the International Technical Cooperation Office at the country’s Ministry of Agricultural Development, added that the MTP aligns almost perfectly with Panama’s own national agricultural sector priorities. She also noted that talks with Ibrahim helped surface and align on shared cross-regional challenges that IICA can help address.
Speaking on the institute’s core mission, Ibrahim emphasized that all IICA initiatives are designed to deliver practical, actionable solutions and measurable, on-the-ground outcomes for rural populations and farming communities across the hemisphere. “For an organization like IICA, which is dedicated to driving the transformation of the Americas’ agrifood systems and advancing sustainable development for rural areas, the needs of producers, rural families, and vulnerable communities must always remain at the center of everything we do,” Ibrahim said.
He added, “Agriculture is fundamental to global sustainable development, and it is inextricably tied to both economic inclusion and environmental stewardship, at a time of growing global uncertainty. That is why our institution’s work must always stay rooted in our core mission.”
IICA’s leader also addressed the pressing interconnected global challenges that shape regional agriculture today, including widespread economic instability, rising global food prices, and growing environmental pressures from climate change. “Against this backdrop, fully integrating smallholder farmers and marginalized rural communities into formal markets, regional value chains, and the production opportunities unlocked by new technologies will be essential to building broader systemic resilience and advancing meaningful social inclusion across the hemisphere,” he warned.
As outlined in the plan document, the 2026-2030 MTP establishes four core technical cooperation priorities for the institute: 1) Science, Technology, and Innovation for Inclusive Production Development; 2) International Trade, Regional Integration, and Competitive Agribusiness; 3) Agricultural Health, Biosecurity, and Food Safety and Quality; and 4) Sustainable Management of Strategic Natural Resources to Boost Agrifood System Productivity and Resilience.
Francisco Alpízar, Technical Advisor to the IICA Directorate General, presented additional technical details on the plan to delegates. Alpízar highlighted that a defining feature of the new MTP is its commitment to tailoring technical cooperation programming to fit the unique needs of the hemisphere’s extremely diverse agricultural systems and production models, addressing variations not just between countries but within individual national contexts as well.