The project “Support for the implementation of climate-smart rural landscapes in Colombia” aims to support Colombia’s decision to make an economic transition towards a more equitable and sustainable model based on national policies regarding climate change and green growth. The overall result of the project is that Colombia will have implemented the strategic measures and actions established in the national policies for climate change and green growth by 2023 and will be able to monitor the progress of these policies in the future. This will be achieved through the generation of information and capacity building for decision making in order to integrate climate change and green growth considerations into local and sectoral planning and management in key regions and sectors for the country’s economy and local adaptation to climate change.

The project has two levels of action: a national level associated with the creation of conditions for monitoring the implementation of public policies related to green growth and climate change, as well as the national goals of the Nationally Determined Contribution – NDC – and the country’s commitments to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development – OECD. At the second level, the project will have a regional impact in the departments of Meta and Vichada and in the Orinoquia region through the generation of information, capacity building, and the development of pilots that will make the move towards economic transition possible, based on local and sectoral development plans, as well as the development of models of climate-smart agricultural production systems.

The project’s resources come from the Latin America Investment Facility (LAIF), which is one of the European Union’s regional mechanisms of combined financing or blending, which promotes the mobilization of funds from European and regional financial institutions, governments, and the private sector for the implementation of projects in Latin America related to key sectors for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, such as: renewable energies, environment, water and sanitation, urban and rural transport, and promotion of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The European Union delegated its financial contribution for the implementation of the project to the French Development Agency (AFD). The National Planning Department (DNP) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development are this cooperation’s beneficiaries in kind.