News
Source: eco.business Fund
The eco.business Fund Development Facility officially launched its Sustainability Academy designed to build capacity on environmental and social best practices for partner institutions and end borrowers and increase uptake of sustainable practices. Due to the global pandemic the world finds itself in, the Sustainability Academy was launched virtually through a training webinar conducted with partner institution Banco Hipotecario for its clients in the agricultural and manufacturing sectors to explore business opportunities arising from the COVID19 crisis.
Source: eco.business Fund
The eco.business Fund Development Facility, in partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI), has successfully launched a tailor-made webinar series on the U.N. “Principles for Responsible Banking.” More than 80 bank representatives from Ecuador, Colombia, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, and Central America participated in the first webinar of the series to learn about concrete methods for integrating this framework into local financing practices.
- This program seeks to promote job integration opportunities through culture and facilitate access to affordable housing for Venezuelan migrants and host populations.
- It is funded by the European Union, through LAIF, and the Korean Alliance Fund for Knowledge in Technology and Innovation (KPK), and is complementary to the funds provided in the form of credit by the Inter-American Development Bank to help improve the provision of infrastructure and services in these cities.
- The project will be implemented in Cúcuta, including Villa del Rosario; Riohacha, Maicao, Barranquilla, Medellín and Rionegro, main host cities.
- Four entities of the National Government are working in this initiative: MinCultura, MinVivie
The European Union’s Latin America Investment Facility (LAIF), the German Cooperation Ministry (BMZ) and the German Development Bank (KfW) have signed an agreement on a €15 million EU contribution to the Latin American Green Bond Fund, known as LAGREEN. The signing coincides with a fruitful virtual meeting of foreign ministers from the EU, Latin America and the Caribbean, hosted by Germany, on 14 December.
LAGREEN is the first green bonds fund in Latin America. Its main purpose is twofold: to finance climate- and resource-friendly investments and to mobilise local and international private capital towards the issuance of more green bonds in Latin America.
The project that will provide potable water and sewerage to rural communities of Portoviejo, Ecuador, receives financial support from the European Union, through LAIF.
It is considered one of the largest and most ambitious social development and infrastructure projects in Ecuador, which will benefit more than 55 thousand people who have lived outside these basic services.
This work will contribute to the achievement of a series of Sustainable Development Goals (namely 3, 5, 6, 11, and 13) and to strengthen Ecuador's resilience in the face of pandemics such as Covid-19.
This report summarizes the activities and investments made by LAIF in Latin America in the last ten years, and CIF in the Caribbean in the last seven years, respectively. It also provides a complete description of the 8 projects approved in 2019, with a total contribution of 76.6 million euros, from both blending instruments.
This contribution from the EU, through LAIF and CIF, leveraged more than 1.8 billion euros (24: 1 leverage ratio).
The European Union’s Latin America Investment Facility, or LAIF, has signed a financing agreement to provide 5.75 million euros in technical assistance to the Triple Inclusive Finance (TIF) programme in Latin America. TIF will promote access to banking services to people currently lacking such access, and will support green microfinancing for micro-, small and medium enterprises in sustainable agriculture. In doing so, it will contribute to closing the banking gap in the region, particularly in rural areas, for low-income workers and for women, while fostering sustainable development in the farming sector.
© AECID
Source: AECID
Spain has awarded three new grants in recent weeks to support the response to the COVID-19 emergency by reinforcing drinking water and sanitation services in rural communities to ensure human rights to water and sanitation. Two of the donations are destined to the Salvadoran NGO PROVIDA and Asociación de Desarrollo Económico Social - ADES Santa Marta for a value of 119,472 and 93,148 euros, respectively, and the third to the Ecuadorian NGO Centro de Apoyo al Desarrollo PROTOS EC for 212,617 euros.
The Central American Bank for Economic Integration, the German Financial Cooperation, through KfW, and the European Union, through its Latin America Investment Facility (LAIF), contribute US$ 350 million to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises affected by COVID-19, through the Financial Sector Support Facility for MSMEs in Central America.
Through the Facility, credit resources are made available to MSMEs to finance their working capital and investment needs through existing financial institutions in the different Central American countries.
