CAF finances pilot plan to promote sustainability in Uruguayan homes

The first Plenary Meeting of the network of actors of the Housing Sustainability Program was held at the headquarters of CAF, Development Bank of Latin America, in Montevideo, Uruguay.  With CAF's support, this initiative will be implemented through a pilot program which will benefit 100 homes in two socio-economically vulnerable neighborhoods in Montevideo. The event helped connect the different organizations intervening in the program, present the different angles of the program's application, and state the ideas and challenges of the program's implementation and its subsequent evaluation. 

During the meeting, Gladis Genua, the multilateral organization's Director Representative in Uruguay, highlighted that supoprt for the program was framed within the work promoted by CAF's Division of Social Innovation. She added, "from that platform we seek to support ideas that help us do things in a different manner, encouraging public-private alliances to promote social innovation and improve the results of countries regarding the environment and social inclusion". 

The project seeks to transfer the methodology developed by the US Department of Energy through its "Weatherization Assistance Program" (WAP) to Uruguay. It consists of carrying out audits in low-income housing, and identifying energy wastes and risks to security and health, to subsequently correct the problems identified through simple and economic actions. In addition to the impacts on health, security, quality of life, and energy savings, the model enables the creation of green employment for the unemployed or underemployed population.  

At the same time, Javier Crespán, Executive at CAF's Direction of Social Innovation, highlighted that home sustainability has a multidimensional and immediate impact on areas such as health, security, productive employment, family life, quality of life, and savings in the family budget.  He explained that CAF strategically and financially supports this pilot project in Uruguy, and soon will support another in Bariloche, Argentina. He added, "The objective of this stage is to adapt the methodology to the local characteristics and prove that it can be copied". When this project is finished, "our intention is to use the methodology to benefit many more people, generate green employment, and promote energy savings, among others". 

According to Nicolás Maggio, representative of Weatherizers Without Borders, the organization in charge of the methodology transfer, audits include thermographic measurements of homes to evaluate energy losses. In addition, they measure the presence of carbon monoxide, lead in paint,  humidity, or problems with the electricity installation. The works proposed may go from a simple change of windows to the renovation of all the cables, or a complete change of roof. 

In Uruguay, the plan is promoted by the National Direction of Energy at the Ministry of Industry, Energy, and Mining (MIEM, for its acronym in Spanish), which was represented at the event by its Director, Olga Otegui; the Manager of the Demand, Access,and Energy Efficiency Area, Carolina Mena, and the coordinator of the Commission for Sustainable Social Development and Gender Equity, Rosana González. The National Director of Energy emphasized that thanks to CAF's support it is possible to advance this pilot program, which, as a result of its characteristics and impacts, fits perfectly into the Ministry's programs in matters regarding energy efficiency. 

The event included the participation of members from the other organizations that work in the project. Among them, Walter Sosa, Director in charge of the area of Social Inclusion at UTE; Carmen Ciganda, Director of Occupational Health and Environment at the Ministry of Public Health; Sebastián Pereyra, Director of the program Canasta Energética (Energy Basket) of the Ministry of Social Development (MIDES); Mariela Solari, Director of the program Uruguay Crece Contigo (Uruguay grows with you); Pablo Cruz, member of the Programa de Mejoramiento de Barrios (Program for the improvement of neighborhoods) of the Ministry of Housing, and Lumber Andrada, from Uruplac.

In the future, new meetings will be organized to continue defining the steps to follow for the implementation of the pilot plan.