Uruguay: pilot plan to improve the conditions of vulnerable homes

The Program for the Sustainability of Housing will be implemented through a pilot which, with CAF's support, will benefit 100 homes in two socio-economically vulnerable neighborhoods of Montevideo. This was disclosed in an event at CAF's headquarters in Montevideo, which explained the implementation of the program.  

During the meeting, Gladis Genua, CAF's Director Representative in Uruguay, highlighted that support to the program is framed within the work promoted by CAF's Direction of Social innovation. She added, "From that platform. we seek to support ideas that enable us to do things in a different manner, encouraging public-private alliances to promote social innovation, and improve the results of countries with respect to the environment and social inclusion".  

The project seeks to transfer to Uruguay the methodology developed by the Department of Energy of the United States of America thorugh its "Weatherization Assistance Program" (WAP). This program seeks to carry out audits in low-income housing, identifying energy wasteful spending and security and health risks, to later correct the identified problems through improvement works that are simple and economic. In addition to the impacts achieved in health, security, quality of life, and energy savings, the model enables the creation of green employment for the unemployed or under-employed population. 

Javier Crespán, Executive at CAF's Direction of Social Innovation, highlighted that making homes sustainable has a multidimensional and immediate impact on areas such as health, security, productive employment, family coexistence, quality of life, and savings in the family budget. He explained that CAF strategically and financially supports this pilot project in Uruguay, and soon another will start in Bariloche, Argentina. He added, "The objective of this stage is to adapt methodologies to the local characteristics and prove that the program can be copied". When ending the pilot project, "our intention is to scale the methodology in order to benefit many people, generate green employment, and promote energy savings, among others".  

According to Nicolás Maggio, Representative of Weatherizers Without Borders, an organization in charge of the methodology's transfer, audits include thermographic measurements in houses to evaluate the loss of energy. In addition, measurements are made to determine the presence of carbon monoxide, lead in paint, humidity, or problems in electricity installations.  Works that are defined may go from a simple change of window to the need to renovate all the electric cables or changing all the roof. 

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

Members from other organizations that participated in the project included Walter Sosa, Director in charge of the Social Inclusion area at UTE; Carmen Ciganda, Director of Occupational Health and Environment at the Ministry of Public Health; Sebastián Pereyra, Director of the Canasta Energética (Energy Basket) Program of the Ministry of Social Development (MIDES, for its acronym in Spanish); Mariela Solari, Director of the program Uruguay Crece Contigo (Uruguay Grows With You); Pablo Cruz, member of the Program for the Improvement of Neighborhoods, of the Ministry of Housing, and Lumber Andrada, of Uruplac.

New meetings will be organized in the future, to continue defining the steps to follow in the implementation of the pilot plan.