190601DALBERG02S
I. OUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE CONTEXT Recent economic growth in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) has resulted in widespread socioeconomic improvements, yet growth has also exacerbated climate challenges, threatening the region s long-term resilience and future growth potential. Trends such as urbanization, air pollution, unsustainable consumption, and waste management are on the rise, further straining the environment and presenting new challenges for the region s sustainable growth. As LAC s middle class continues to grow, the region s carbon footprint will expand. By 2030, LAC s middle class is expected to reach 345 million people. Urbanization coupled with the region s rapidly expanding middle class has resulted in unsustainable consumption and production patterns that contribute to biodiversity loss, including the destruction of non-renewable natural resources such as water, and climate change. Today, Latin America and the Caribbean face complex environmental challenges that increasingly disrupt livelihoods and socioeconomic opportunities in the region. In recent years, extreme weather events such as extreme temperatures, coastal floodings, and heavy rains have both intensified and increased in frequency, negatively affecting the region s population, particularly those who are most vulnerable, such as women and indigenous populations. From 2007-2012, 340 extreme weather events affected Latin America, impacting over 37 million people and costing the region over USD $32 billion. Tropical storms have devastated parts of Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean, while prolonged droughts have decreased crop yields and have led to food rationing in Peru, Venezuela, and Brazil. As environmental stressors continue to intensify, water resources, agricultural production, sea levels, and human health will be further strained, resulting in adverse effects for local populations. These changes in climate have exacerbated regionwide trends that threaten growth and development, including fluctuating agricultural yields and increasing regional food security. However they have also given rise to trends, such as climate smart agriculture and sustainable consumption, that are essential to increase agricultural productivity, build resilience to climate change, and obtain sustainable growth. Human-led trends such as deforestation, air pollution, and heavy reliance on dirty energy are also on the rise. LAC accounts for 54% of the world s deforestation and it is estimated that in the last 40 years, humans have destroyed over 20% of the Amazon rainforest. Investing in afforestation, reforestation, and forest conservation would not only decrease biodiversity loss and greenhouse emissions, but could potentially decrease the cost of climate change mitigation by 40%. Air pollution is also posing largescale challenges in the region. Increased industrialization and accelerated urbanization has increased LAC s carbon footprint, raising pollution levels and leading to a decline in air quality, which has adverse health effects for the population. WHO estimates that each year, 58,000 deaths in LAC can be attributed to ambient air pollution. Moreover, air pollution contributes to extreme weather events, feeding to biodiversity loss and food insecurity. Lastly, although LAC has vast potential to produce renewable energy, particularly hydroelectric and wind energy, the region continues to rely on oil and natural gas, accounting for 41% and 29% of regional energy respectively. Continuing to evaluate the environmental implications of energy production, including of renewable energies, is essential for effective policy development and to attain long term environmental and economic sustainability. These rapidly evolving trends impacting the environment and energy have altered political dynamics, increasing both public and private sector climate adaptation and conservation focus and initiatives. Throughout the region, efforts are underway to strengthen the ada
Dalberg Consulting US LLC
Delivery Order GS00F193DA-7200AA19M00008
$147.1k 7/22/20 190601ICF01S
The Environment team in the United States Agency for International Development, Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean, Office of Regional Sustainable Development (USAID/LAC/RSD/ENV) requires expert technical and logistical support services to strengthen the design, management, and evaluation of regional and bilateral environment, resilience, and energy programs in the LAC region. Consulting services to be provided under this contract cover four key tasks: Program and activity design and implementation support Monitoring and evaluation of environment, resilience, and energy programs Design and development of skills-building workshops and support of workshop delivery Analysis and communication of environment and energy trends, data, and safeguard issues The contract will enable LAC/RSD/ENV and LAC Missions to access services in support of activities in the environment and energy sectors, or these sectors linked with other sectoral activities. At USAID, the environment sector encompasses biodiversity conservation, sustainable landscapes, combating wildlife trafficking, resilience, compliance, and modern energy. The work required through this contract will make essential investments to build the capacity of USAID staff, implementing and country partners, and the larger environment community of practice by systematically sharing the information and products generated through its work. To accomplish this work, the Contractor is required to work to the maximum extent possible with and through local and regional institutions to build and transfer technical expertise, knowledge, and experience. Further, the Contractor will be required to identify and mitigate any gender issues.
ICF Incorporated, L.L.C.
Delivery Order GS00F193DA-7200AA19M00008
$620.6k 2/6/20 190601DALBERG01S
TO FINANCING SUSTAINABLE LANDSCAPES IN MEXICO INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND Natural landscapes are disappearing across Mexico. Today, about 35% of the country is forest land, while over 50% is dedicated to agriculture.i What's more, the former is disappearing while the latter grows: for the last three years, Mexico has lost over 250,000 hectares of forest cover annually,ii driven by conversion to commercial agriculture; food crop and meat production on private, ejido and community lands; illegal logging; and urbanization, amongst other factors.iii,iv Meanwhile, three-quarters of the country's soils have some degree of erosion; some states have almost no stable soil, while others have ~15% with severe degradation.v In response, Mexico has set ambitious goals to improve sustainable land use by 2030. Specifically, Mexico aims to achieve net-zero deforestation and to expand domestic timber and forest product production to meet domestic consumption of forest products, both by 2030. The Mexican government also aims to restore one million hectares of degraded land in 19 states before 2024, via the Sembrando Vida program (Planting Life). Achieving these goals hinges on working closely with smallholder farmers, communities, community forestry enterprises (CFEs), and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) who manage a vast share of Mexico's forest and agricultural lands. For forest land, about 61% falls under collective land tenure agreements or harvesting agreements managed by ejidos, communities, and micro-enterprises.vi For agricultural land, including livestock, about 50% of farmers are smallholders.vii Making progress at scale, therefore, requires integrated approaches with collaboration between smallholders, community enterprises, producer organizations, social businesses, privately-run operations, and conservation areas. Yet today, lack of financing is impeding sustainable land management. Smallholders and SMEs need the right training, inputs, and productive assets to implement sustainable practices, but do not have the resources to do so.viii In Latin America, the smallholder farming financing gap alone was estimated at nearly USD ~20 billion in 2016.ix This gap stems from a range of supply-side, demand-side, and crosscutting challenges: On the supply side: Overall, there is a lack of interest and/or understanding from traditional financial institutions to lend to smallholders, CFEs, and SMEs. Meanwhile, microfinance institutions (MFIs) and FIs devoted to small rural producers and sustainable efforts (e.g., FINDECA, members of the Mexican Association of Credit Unions from the Social Sectorx), have limited access to additional capital to lend. Lack of proof-of-concept for business models, small deal sizes (e.g. for institutional investors), and the long-time horizon required for returns further impede investment.xi On the demand side: Globally, there is a lack of knowledge and capacity across smallholders, CFEs, and SMEs on how to access financing that supports sustainable production practices. More broadly, many economic incentives currently drive deforestation and land degradation rather than sustainable management. For example, lack of law enforcement, coupled with high prices for tropical agricultural products, makes it more profitable to clear a forest than to manage it sustainably.xii Lastly, in Mexico in particular, fragmented ownership leads to inefficiencies and lack of landscape-level management,xiii which hinders large-scale investment and implementation of sustainable management solutions.xiv From a crosscutting perspective: There are a host of regulatory challenges related to both land management and the financial sector. Political commitment is a key part of the solution. From a regulatory perspective overregulation of the forestry sector makes it costly to secure a permit to harvest a forest property.xv From a financial perspective, microfinance interest rates are often prohibitively high, in part due to regul
Dalberg Consulting US LLC
Delivery Order GS00F193DA-7200AA19M00008
$117.2k 12/5/19