LAIF Projects

In addition to factors such as the ageing population, chronic diseases and high-cost treatments, specific factors to Colombia's General System of Social Security threaten its financial stability. These factors range from limited funding in a context of increasing demand for new affiliates and expensive technology, to a fragmented service model with deficiencies in primary care services, health promotion and disease prevention programming; and the recent waves of Venezuelan migrants without health insurance, who receive expensive emergency medical care.

In response to these challenges, the EU mobilised resources through the LAIF, IDB and AECID (totalling 152.112.000 EUR) to support the Government of Colombia in improving the country’s institutional capacities in health planning and management at the territorial level. The project will further serve to better the health outcomes of migrants and host communities by increasing the coverage of affiliation to the SGSSS and improvi...

This project aims to set up a Regional Fund that will provide Central American Integration System (SICA) countries with funds to run projects that both address and prevent natural disasters.

This is done in a context of the region’s vulnerability to climate change. To that end, the EU is putting together € 4 925 000 (out of € 1 705 495 000 as total investment with lead partner CABEI) towards the setup of a Regional Fund. These investments will contribute to the mitigation of the impact by extreme events, while improving capacity to deal with climate change. For these reasons, the Fund will serve as a catalyst to ensure focused action is maintained at national and international levels.

More specifically, the Fund aims to help build SICA countries’ capacities in the development of viable climate change projects by providing technical assistance for project preparation. It will do so by facilitating:

• Climate risk assessment and studies...

This project aims to build the capacities of Brazil’s Minas Gerais Development Bank (BDMG) in its efforts to finance projects with a positive impact on post-covid 19 economic recovery. This project comes in a context where the pandemic has exacerbated short term social and economic tensions, as well as structural environmental and climate tensions. In Brazil, federated states-owned banks have played a relevant counter-cyclical role throughout the pandemic. In Minas Gerais (MG), the BDMG has been particularly involved in the financing of emergency-response-related sectors and economic recovery policies. 

To that end, the EU has invested € 3 175 000 (out of a total of € 74 175 000, together with AFD). The LACIF grant feeds the purpose of providing partial financing, through grants and/or green investment projects to BDMG’s most vulnerable clients and all sectors with the highest climate/environmental and social co-benefits.

The main objective of the project is...

This project aims to upgrade and enhance the capacities of three Cuban public health institutions (namely IPK, INHEM, and INEF) by contributing to the upgrading of their equipment and material, and by providing immediate support to the current COVID-19 outbreak.

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 specific objectives of this fund are:

• to mobilise additional funding for Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) implementation;
• to push local capital market development towards a transition to sustainable finance – thereby fostering transparency and long-term commitments in financial and economic activity;
• to reach a substantial greenhouse gas emissions mitigation and / or climate change adaption impact.

Ecuador is a highly urbanised country, with more than 70% of the population living in cities, as a result of migration from rural areas.

In a bid to curb down the impact of rural migration, LAIF and AECID decided to invest a total of 109,211,053 euros on improving the living conditions of the rural population of the Portoviejo Canton (Ecuador). They aim to do so by promoting the effective realisation of the human rights to water and sanitation of the rural population of the Portoviejo Canton.

More concretely, the project will make the population’s access to safe drink water and sanitation facilities both better and sustainable. The project will also strengthen the operation and maintenance of the water and sanitation facilities in sustainable conditions.

This program will contribute to the achievement of the Brazilian goal of universalization of basic water and sanitation services and to socially-inclusive development in the rural areas of one of the poorest states of Brazil, the State of Ceará. Ceará has an estimated population of 9.0 million, 4% of Brazil’s total population, and shares only 2% of nation al GDP. Ceará is located in a semi-arid region where high average temperatures, low precipitation and recurrent droughts are characteristic, and where water and sanitation infrastructure is insufficient. Only one third of the households in rural areas have access to safe and piped drinking water.

The program’s overall objective is to strengthen the resilience of the rural population towards water scarcity, and improve access to drinking water, sanitation and sewage treatment. For this, the program will strengthen the capacities of the SISARs (the local operating companies – Integrated Rural Sanitation Systems) and co...

The objective of this project is to improve island-wide the quality and efficiency of the National Institute of Hydraulic Resources (Instituto Nacional de Recursos Hidráulicos - INRH) water and wastewater services and to increase the resilience to extreme climate events (hurricanes, droughts) of this entity, its associated companies, and, thereby, of the population. On the one hand, the project will work for the rehabilitation of the infrastructure affected by Hurricane Irma in 2017, and on the other, the strengthening of the capacities of the companies in charge of the operation and maintenance of these services.

The National Sustainable Urban Transport Program aims to improve sustainable urban mobility by supporting the reform of public urban transport in Peru's main cities. The LAIF contribution co-finances the Technical Assistance component to support central and local governments and to develop a pipeline of feasible and bankable projects.

This project aims at supporting the identification and financing of investments in agriculture, livestock breeding and agroforestry and at underpinning their implementation in order to promote sustainable practices based on agroecological principles while mainstreaming climate change mitigation and adaptation into the agriculture and livestock sectors.

Specific objectives of the project are:

a) To extend agroecological and agro-sylvo-pastoral technologies, tackle environmental and social risks and bring institutional support to the main stakeholders of the PRODEGAN project (cooperatives, agro-industries, decentralized service providers, local authorities, producers associations, research institutions) in Camagüey, the main animal production area in the country;

b) To enable the most adapted investment for a modern integrated carbonization/cogeneration plant by a private investor (5 candidates identified by Cuban authorities) as a part of an overall clean...

The Green MSMEs lnitiative aims at reducing carbon emissions in the Central American Region by ensuring the provision of financial and non-financial services to support renewable power generation and energy efficiency measures in Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises. In order to do so, the lnitiative contains three main components:

• Technical Assistance for MSMEs as well as Participating Financial lntermediaries,
• Partial Risk Guarantees for MSMEs,
• Financing (loans) for Environmental lnvestments for MSMEs.

This lnitiative represents a continuation of the "Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy programme for SME in Central America". The mentioned Program has been successfully implemented and the achievements and lessons learnt constitute the basis for this Initiative.

The project consists of the new construction, extension, rehabilitation and equipment of 21 Technical and Technological Institutes (TTIs), classified at the post-secondary level of education. It is part of a national educational reform programme aimed at introducing and enlarging the dual system of vocational, technical and professional education in Ecuador. This dual system is based on modules of formal instruction in classrooms combined with training on the job through apprenticeships with private companies.

This program supports the implementation of an integrated waste management system for the collection, treatment and disposal of municipal solid waste generated in the province of Jujuy, Argentina. The integrated management system is phasing out the dumping of untreated waste, by recovering both energy and material through anaerobic digestion and a better recycling performance.

At the same time, the program is ensuring that targeted municipalities develop and implement specific integrated waste management policies, create jobs related to waste treatment, optimize waste collection and have adequate disposal facilities.

This project consists of a multisector framework loan given by the EIB to finance reconstruction of small-scale infrastructure damaged by the earthquake of 16 April 2016 in the province of Manabí, particularly in the city of Portoviejo, which was the most affected. The socioeconomic level of the province is lower than the national level. Poverty and extreme poverty are 31.3% and 6.3% of the total population, compared to 25.8% and 5.7% at national level.

The technical assistance provided by LAIF supports national and local authorities to ensure the effective and transparent execution of the project, the development and implementation of an Environmental and Social Management Plan and a Stakeholders’ Engagement Plan, and the strengthening and enforcement of Ecuador’s Building Code (2015). 

The aim of the facility is to finance activities such as feasibility or pre-feasibility studies relating to investment projects likely to be financed by the IFIs in Cuba. The expertise that will be provided could consist of specific sector support (in the field of energy, transport, water, etc.) but could also contribute to improving the compliance of the investment projects with international standards in environmental, social, gender or climate issues. The selected projects will be the ones considered as priorities by the Cuban Government, in particular in the sectors of energy, water and sanitation, urban rehabilitation, agriculture and transportation, and that are likely to be bankable. All the projects will have an expected positive contribution to the country’s adaptation to climate change or to the reduction of GHG emissions.

The objective of the project is to improve the income of small and medium producers through the promotion of production based on the rational and climate-smart use and management of natural resources, especially efficient irrigation. National capacities will be strengthened in the design and management of parcel irrigation systems, through the training of experts and irrigation professionals who will contribute to the improvement and modernization of agricultural production systems, the efficient management of irrigation water, improved access to markets and the resilience of the Ecuadorian farming sector to climate change.

This is Bolivia’s first large-scale photovoltaic project. It entails the construction of a 50 MW photovoltaic (PV) power plant in the Altiplano region, in the highlands of western Bolivia, and its connection to the Bolivian national grid. The PV plant boosts electricity generation by approximately 100 GWh/year and contributes to the diversification of the Bolivian energy mix, reinforcing Bolivia's national strategy to develop renewable energies (wind and solar), which are expected to reach 70% of installed capacity in 2025.

This project aims to support Peru’s main financial instrument for agriculture, Agribanco, to fulfil its mission of developing the country’s sustainable agriculture.  This project has been designed against a backdrop where more than a third of the Peruvian population lives in rural areas and 50% of its revenues come from agriculture, a very vulnerable sector to climate change (drought, flood, Nino and Nina phenomenon, etc.) Agricultural techniques in Peru cause deforestation and considerable degradation. In addition, the use of irrigated water is not effective due to leaks and overwatering and does not thus encourage water savings.

Through LACIF, and together with AFD, the EU is offering a contribution of 5 325 000 euros to support Agrobanco in mainstreaming climate change mitigation and adaptation in the agricultural sector in Peru.  

The LACIF contribution will finance the following:

I) A Technical Assistance (TA) program t...

LAIF's action is embedded in the "Cities with a Future" program, launched by CAF to accompany policies for sustainable urban development in Latin America and to promote an integrated, multi-sectoral approach to urban development in order to better answer the challenges faced by local governments. The Program helps structure a dialogue with the cities on four main issues: inclusive urban development, productive transformation, environmental sustainability and institutional strengthening and security. In the framework of the Program, the first step towards implementation includes technical assistance (diagnosis and priorities) financed through a grant, leading to investments as a second step. The action has two components: a credit facility and technical assistance.

The Geothermal Development Facility for Latin America aims at overcoming existing barriers to the development of geothermal energy by providing: (i) a tailored Geothermal Risk Mitigation Fund in order to diminish geothermal resource risk during the exploratory drilling stage of the project; (ii) geothermal investment financing windows to deliver anchor financing for subsequent investments during the production drilling and construction stages; and (iii) a Technical Assistance Forum to offer a suitable venue for policy dialogue between donors and partner governments.

The program sought sustainable investments and practices in agriculture, fisheries and forestry sectors, which helped improve the quality of life of rural populations, especially in poor regions, and optimize the use of natural resources while mainstreaming climate change mitigation and adaptation in the sector. The project supported a public agriculture development bank, FIRA, with financing, investment grants and technical assistance to provide concessional loans for pilot green rural investments as well as long-term financing in the field of mitigation and adaptation of climate change in rural activities.

The LAIF contribution aims to improve water and sewerage infrastructures and contribute to reducing the risk of diseases caused by deficient water management in the Latin American region through the development of various projects. These are grouped into two components: Component I, projects for adaptation to climate change (ACC) and Component II, projects for the integrated management of water resources.

The projects include the reinforcement of capacities associated with the programs; studies developed in the pre-investment phase to identify new investments in new actions; review of regulations and the development of methodologies, tools and manuals, which in turn will have an impact on future investments.

The vision of this program was the enhancement of public investment in energy-efficient and clean technology mass transportation systems in large Latin American cities, to meet the growing demand for public transportation  — especially of the poorer segments of the population — while helping to mitigate its environmental impact. LAIF provided funds to prepare pre-financing studies or to complement existing studies, to facilitate investment for the improvement of urban transportation systems.

The project supported the development of the National Policy for the Integrated Management of Water Resources, especially by monitoring the implementation of its 'Hydrological Plan for the 2014 Horizon' and by means of a favorable financing framework for investments in the water sector. Additionally, it has contributed to the protection of the environment, through the improvement of the quality of water resources; and, increased the water supply to reduce conflicts related to water among the local population.

LAIF supported Financial Corporation for the Territorial Development S.A - FINDETER (Financiera de Desarrollo Territorial S.A.) in its mandate to contribute to the implementation of sustainable public policies and of the 2010-2014 Colombian National Development Plan, which includes support for the development of sustainable urban areas. The LAIF action will foster and enhance investments in Colombian urban areas, working from a local perspective to achieve sustainability in the regions.

The objective of the program is to facilitate and improve public and private investments in water and sanitation infrastructure, thus contributing to a higher coverage of regional infrastructure demand through environmental and/or climate-relevant solutions. The aim is to carry out complementary studies (e.g. preparation of project profiles, knowledge management, training), support the creation of new and innovative companies and strengthen the financial sector at the service of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises.

The EcoCasa Programme aims at contributing to the efforts of the Mexican government in reducing greenhouse gas emissions related to the housing sector.

The housing sector represents one of the most important untapped potential for energy efficiency in Mexico. During the last decades, urban expansion was insufficiently planned, which resulted in increased energy demand, infrastructure deficits, and inefficient transport patterns. The non-sustainable development pattern of Mexican cities has also aggravated the contribution of the housing sector to the global climate change.

To support the Mexican government in promoting energy efficiency in the Mexican housing sector, the European Union, through LACIF, provides a combination of economic incentives and technical assistance to support the planning and implementation of energy efficient homes that generate less greenhouse gas emissions.

In this context, the EU through LACIF is supporting the EcoCasa Programme, the worl...

The goal of this program was to increase knowledge of urban development and transport in the region, by identifying new sources of financing for public transport projects (public-private partnerships, land valuation, etc.); identifying the regulatory obstacles to innovative transport projects and the way to surmount them; highlighting the potential of local communities to carry out this type of projects; and making it possible to define the technical and financial contours of specific projects in targeted cities (master plans and prefeasibility studies), thus promoting the emergence and implementation of public transport projects in the region.

This program is aimed at financing investments in renewable energy and environmental protection projects in Latin America. To complement the investment funding, the EU granted technical assistance funds through LAIF to carry out studies that foster innovative technologies and projects in the sector with the aim of converting them into potential investment projects for CAF. They included feasibility studies and renewable energy potential assessments for Latin American countries, among other climate change projects and initiatives.

The objective of the PNESER was to support the efforts of the Nicaraguan government to reduce poverty by promoting access to an efficient and sustainable electricity service to an important portion of the population, thus generating the conditions to advance in the diversification of the energy matrix and the mitigation and adaptation to climate change. 

The program supported 7 components:

1) Rural electrification through grid extension;

2) Normalization of electricity service in human settlements;

3) Electricity expansion in isolated areas through renewable energy;

4) Pre-investment for renewable energy projects;

5) Energy efficiency programs;

6) Strengthening of the transmission system in rural areas;

7) Sustainability of isolated systems under Empresa Nicaragüense de Electricidad (ENEL)'s responsibility.