CAF and 100 Resilient Cities sign MoU to boost sustainability of Latin American cities

For the purposes of promoting more resilient cities in Latin America through cooperation and exchange of knowledge, CAF-development bank of Latin America- and Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities (100RC) program, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). 

The experts of CAF’s Cities with Future Program will work hand in hand with their counterparts of the “100RC” program to promote urban resilience in Latin America, in addition to their work in disseminating best practices in the region to create increasingly inclusive, connected and spatially, economically and socially integrated cities, with universal access to basic services, training opportunities and environmental responsibility.

“This cooperation is beneficial for Latin America because development, cooperation and exchange of knowledge and experiences will allow us to initiate a joint learning process, and speed up the implementation of policies for resilient cities, as well as new approaches of cross-sectional and intergovernmental work, encouraging the implementation of specific projects identified in resilience strategies,” said CAF’s executive president, Luis Carranza, during the signing of the MoU, together with Michael Berkowitz, President of 100 Resilient Cities.  

“With this commitment, 100 Resilient Cities hopes to work closely with CAF to promote resilience in cities across Latin America. This is the beginning of a great collaboration; we hope that our work with the most important development bank in the region will yield a positive impact on Latin American cities,” said Michael Berkowitz.

CAF and 100RC will work together on a range of issues, including: analysis of the general guidelines, budget scenario and regulatory framework on urban resilience in Latin America; strengthening of technical capacities on urban resilience at national, state and municipal levels, including inter-municipal approaches (metropolitan level); application of methodologies designed by 100RC to increase the resilience of specific projects in participating cities; and technical support for selected projects and assistance in seeking financing sources, among others.

100RC has set out to catalyze a great movement on urban resilience to improve the cities’ response capacity, under a working vision that integrates not only response to natural disasters, but also to economic and social stresses that weaken the urban fabric on a cyclical basis. The Latin American cities that are part of the network include Buenos Aires and Santa Fe (Argentina); Cali and Medellín (Colombia); Colima, Guadalajara, Juárez and Mexico City (Mexico); Porto Alegre, Río de Janeiro and Salvador (Brazil); Quito (Ecuador); Panama City (Panama), Santiago de los Caballeros (Dominican Republic); Montevideo (Uruguay) and Santiago de Chile (Chile).