CAF promotes financial innovation with an emphasis on inclusion and sustainability for a better future for cities

Cities play a fundamental role in social and economic recovery after the pandemic, especially those in Latin America and the Caribbean, which concentrate 80% of the population. This was one of the central messages of the delegation from CAF -development bank of Latin America- that participated in the XI World Urban Forum, held in Katowice, Poland.

Rethinking cities to better adapt them to the challenges brought by the pandemic and climate change requires new ideas to those already raised in previous forums. Therefore, CAF carried out an agenda of examples and pragmatic, inclusive and innovative solutions to improve the quality of life of the population.

“At CAF we see cities as engines of an economic, sustainable and inclusive recovery. We are working on financial innovations so that subnational governments can invest in initiatives that foster greater inclusion. For example, a quality public space allows for a transfer of value to the land and an efficient model for its management and maintenance,” explained Ángel Cárdenas, manager of Urban Development and Creative Economies at CAF.

The Prosperity Fund in Colombia with resources of up to USD 1,200 million is a good example as it serves as an umbrella for subnational entities (municipalities, governorates and metropolitan areas, among others) to access debt resources to leverage their investments with emphasis in reducing poverty, adapting to climate change and enabling the achievement of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals

The data to generate policies based on evidence and efficiency in public investment, beyond its contribution to monitoring and follow-up; is another of the innovations promoted by CAF at the IX World Urban Forum, together with The Governance Lab (The GovLab) of the Tandon School of Engineering) Transformative Urban Mobility Initiative (TUMI) and the New Urban Mobility Alliance (NUMO) by launching the ten priority questions obtained as a result of the "100 Questions on Urban Mobility and Transport".

As part of the strategy of turning CAF into the green bank, the third axis The innovative aspect of CAF's participation was the presentation of the biodiversity network, which in less than a year already includes more than 60 cities in 11 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.This network aims to scale and replicate the efforts promoted by the Government of Colombia, the World Economic Forum and the Alexander von Humboldt Biological Resources Research Institute where the mayors have committed to incorporating biodiversity into projects of urban development.

CAF's delegation participated in high-level dialogues, side events and presentation of publications, adding 8 spaces in addition to more than 15 bilateral meetings with global, national, local and academic actors in which it reiterated its commitment to be the Green Bank, of the economic and social reactivation, and of subnational governments to improve the well-being of their population -with an emphasis on the most vulnerable-, and promote the region's competitiveness.