Honduras – Running the show

This week I represented the UK at the Presidential inauguration in Honduras. From a personal perspective – or let’s say from one diplomat to another – I marvelled at how the Ministry of Foreign Affairs managed to handle delegations from over 90 countries and make sure that we were all in the right place at the right time. I also counted our blessings that the UK’s change of Head of State is a less frequent affair. Although I guess my colleagues in the UK had a similar feat of organisation for the London 2012 Olympics.

It also got me mulling on how hard it must be to take over the running of the country, and by that I mean any country, with expectations so huge and so many different challenges to face. The new President of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernandez, set out his key plans for his government in his inauguration address. While it inevitably focused on domestic measures he mentioned the role that the international community can play to help. The European Union Association agreement will be the framework for our relations and the trade pillar’s entry into force is a good first step. The conference in London in March will explore these opportunities further.  There will also be EU development cooperation in areas such as access to justice and promoting human rights.

These issues go hand in hand with the UK’s bilateral plans in Honduras and, to give a recent example, I was pleased to visit the project we funded with Asociacion Libre Expresion to support Lenca women develop their own small business. The President spoke about ending the party for criminals. In the next few weeks we will have a visit by the Crown Prosecutor’s office to explore cooperation in justice issues. The President focused on employment opportunities, especially for the young, and we plan to run some workshops for young business people in San Pedro Sula. He also signed commitments with Transparency International and we are pleased to be able to support the government in its work to implement the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative and as a member of the Open government partnership.  So while we won’t be running the show, we will try and play our part. And we are very open to ideas on what else we might do.