Ecuador requests cooperation from the UNDP and the IFC to face the probable phenomenon of El Niño

The president of Ecuadorthe conservative Guillermo Lasso, requested this Thursday support from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in the mission that his Government has to prepare the Andean country to face a probable El Niño climatic phenomenon in the coming months.

Lasso expressed the need for international cooperation in sectors such as infrastructure, health, water and agriculture during a meeting held in New York with the administrator of the UNDPAchim Steiner.

This was stated in statements released by the Communications Secretariat of the Ecuadorian Presidency by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Human Mobility, Gustavo Manrique, who accompanied the president at the meeting with the Minister of Government, Henry Cucalón.

For his part, Steiner expressed the willingness of the international organization to “help Ecuador become a resilient economy to face various climate changes,” as it has already done in various programs, especially in environmental matters. Lasso also had a meeting with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), of the World Bank Group, to request direct lines of credit from the private sector that can help Ecuadorian industries prepare for this natural phenomenon.

The El Niño phenomenon occurs without a fixed periodicity and in Ecuador it is characterized by causing large floods in coastal areas due to torrential rains generated from an unusual warming of the temperature of the Eastern Tropical Pacific.

According to the estimates made so far in the Pacific Ocean, which registers an increase in temperature in a similar trend to other past episodes of The boythe Government of Ecuador maintains that there is more than 80% probability of a moderate event and 56% of a severe event.

The Ecuadorian president has been in New York since Wednesday as the last of the three stops on his official tour that took him first to Madrid and then to Brussels to participate in the summit between the European Union (EU) and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac).

In New York, Lasso participated in the World Congress of Law and, in addition to requesting cooperation to deal with the El Niño phenomenon, will also seek support for a law to go ahead in the legislative sphere of the United States that includes Ecuador in the tariff preference agreement with the Caribbean countries.