EUROCLIMA+ Programme – Country Dialogue

The country dialogue is a long-term process of engagement between the EUROCLIMA+ programme and a partner country in Latin America. It contributes to strengthening the implementation of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).

This methodology makes it possible to organise a joint identification, between EUROCLIMA+ and the partner country, of the actions that the programme can support in the field of climate change, in line with the country’s strategy and policy and the programme’s priorities and capacity to provide a response to them. Several country dialogues started in 2020 and 2021, as well as multi-country and regional dialogues, including in Amazonia. An effective coordination between the national focal points (NFPs), the sectoral ministries and the relevant institutions makes it possible to define, program and implement priority actions in each country or region.

AFD Group is currently involved in 16 actions of 8 country dialogues (Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama and Peru) and a regional dialogue on the Leticia Pact (Amazonia). In this context, AFD is implementing actions related to climate finance, while Expertise France is coordinating actions related to the thematic sectors “Forests, biodiversity and ecosystems” (FBE) and “Resilient food production” (RFP). The agency is also responsible for the communication, visibility and knowledge management for all the actions implemented by AFD Group in the context of these country dialogues.

AFD Group has a total budget of €11.5 million for the implementation of this phase, including €8.5 million implemented by Expertise France.

Each country dialogue is organised on the basis of six main stages:

1. Formal request by the country to the EUROCLIMA+ programme to initiate the country dialogue process.
2. Discussions based on the country's needs, joint identification of the priority requests which the programme can support.
3. Positioning of the implementing agencies (FIAPP, GIZ, AECID, AFD Group, CEPAL, UNEO) in terms of the requests made by the country and accepted by the programme.
4. Technical dialogues between the implementing agencies and the technical teams of the ministries to define the country action plan and a detailed plan for each action.
5. Implementation of actions.
6. Capitalisation and dissemination of results.

Stages 1 and 2 are managed by GIZ and FIAPP as facilitating agencies for the country dialogue methodology. Expertise France is involved in stages 3 to 6 as the lead agency for the forest and agriculture sectors. Here are some examples of the actions it is implementing.

Brazil:

• Recovery of endemic vegetation on the indigenous lands in the Caatinga biomes, the Atlantic Forest and the Pantanal
• Implementation of direct seeding / no-till systems as a basis of sustainable agriculture
• Strengthening of the governance of Amazonian environmental agencies for sustainable forest management.

Colombia:

• Implementation of actions to achieve the deforestation control objectives in the Amazonian region and contribute to the national climate change targets
• Strengthening of integrated management instruments for climate change in Colombia’s environmental sector, in the context of the implementation of the climate change law and policy aligned with the commitments of Colombia’s NDC and Long-Term Strategy E2050
• Support for the management and implementation of the commitments and structuring of a reporting system to verify compliance with the zero-deforestation agreements (CDA) signed for the cocoa, meat, milk and palm sectors.

Écuador:

• Definition and implementation of the MRV (measure, reporting and verification) system for actions related to sustainable agricultural production systems
• USCUSS – Strengthening of research in the forest sector, dissemination of good practices, creation of exchange forums in order to achieve the objectives in the priority sectors of mitigation (land use) and adaptation (natural heritage, water heritage, food sovereignty) of Ecuador’s NDC

Costa Rica:

• Strengthening of sub-national capacities for the implementation of adaptation actions based on ecosystems, communities and/or integrated and local risk management, through a multilevel and intersectoral coordination.

Panama:

• Promotion of the conservation, sustainable use and restoration of the marine and coastal ecosystems of the Republic of Panama for the development of blue carbon.

EUROCLIMA+ is the European Commission’s flagship regional cooperation programme in Latin America for climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Its objective is to assist 18 countries in the region with the implementation of their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) within the framework of the  UNFCCC, through the identification and implementation of innovative actions in six thematic sectors (forests, biodiversity and ecosystems; energy; water; risk and disaster management; urban mobility; resilient food production) and six crosscutting lines of action (public policies; climate finance; transparency; intersectoral and multilevel coordination; action for climate empowerment; gender and vulnerable groups) identified jointly with the countries in the region through national and regional policy dialogues.

The programme is implemented by two United Nations agencies and five cooperation agencies of EU Member States, including AFD Group represented by Agence Française de Développement and Expertise France. Since 2017, Expertise France has been the lead agency for the Forests, biodiversity and ecosystems sector (grants for 9 projects) and is implementing technical assistance in the Resilient food production sector. In 2020, the programme entered a new phase (2020-2024) characterised by the “country dialogues” methodology.