CAF Signs Cooperation Agreement to Reduce Climate Vulnerability Through the Chile-Ecuador Regional Project

In an effort to help reduce vulnerability to climate-related floods and landslides in the coastal cities of Esmeraldas, Ecuador, and Antofogasta and Tatal in Chile, CAF - Development Bank of Latin America has signed a cooperation agreement with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to reduce climate vulnerability through the Chile-Ecuador regional project.

The accordprovides for the deployment of a project over the next 5 years, which will have three components. The first component involves priority actions geared toward increasing resilience in the three coastal cities, as well as integrating risk management into local planning, building infrastructure that takes climate-related variables into account, improving climate monitoring and strengthening existing early warning and response systems.

The second aims to build up the capabilities of local government officials and communities, as well as to strengthen connections between communities and local and national governments. The thirditem intends to use information and communication technologies (ICT) to facilitate the creation of professional networks and enhance collective learning on specific project issues, as well as create an electronic platform to accelerate bi-national collaborations between project participants - through teleconferences and webinars - and share the lessons learned from the project to benefit coastal cities worldwide.

In Esmeraldas, the project aims to assist the communities along the Gatazo hill ridges in the 20 de November neighborhood, which suffers from continuous landslides. The plan will also help the Luis Vargas Torres island community respond more effectively to its frequent flooding through an early warning system. In addition, a flood pool will be installed in Antofagasta to control sludge flows in the Bonilla Sur stream. Tatal will roll out components two and three of the agreement in their entirety.

The document was signed by CAF representative in Ecuador Bernardo Requena and UNDP resident representative in Ecuador Matilde Mordt. CAF will work with UNDP - in cooperation with the Ministries of Environment of the two countries and the local governments of Esmeraldas, Antofagasta and Tatal - to foster a resilience-building approach based on integrating risk management into planning , creating collaboration and networking and developing a culture of adaptation.