Ecuador

Water is not scarce in Ecuador, but access to it is highly unequal. In rural areas, which are home to 40% of the population, only 39% of residents have access to drinking water, compared to 87% in urban areas. Subject to growing pressures (including population growth, urbanization, and industrial use) water resources suffer from poor management and distribution. In response to this “water injustice,” the government enshrined the “right to water” in the 2008 Constitution.

To help ensure broader access to water and improve sanitation services, AFD is supporting the country through a range of actions:

• Since 2015, AFD has supported the national Prosaneamiento program. Its goal is to increase coverage of drinking water and sanitation services across the country.
• In response to population growth in the capital, AFD is financing improvements to Quito’s drinking water production and distribution system. It is also supporting EPMAPS, the public utility in charge of water and sanitation services for the metropolitan district. The project also includes the construction of a 7 MW hydropower plant on the Chalpi River.

Improving the national education system is a priority for the Ecuadorian government. The country’s education reform aims to expand student access, increase attendance, improve learning outcomes, and better respond to the needs of specialized education.

To help achieve these goals, AFD is supporting the Escuelas del Milenio program, which includes the construction and renovation of school facilities equipped to welcome students of all levels — from preschool through secondary school — on a single campus.

Through this project, signed in 2017 and primarily focused on rural and remote areas, AFD seeks to facilitate the restoration or reconstruction of existing school buildings in line with quality standards.

These new facilities are designed to deliver quality public education. Particular emphasis is placed on teacher training, pedagogical support teams, and the development of educational materials. The project also includes an innovative dimension: the recognition and promotion of Indigenous culture.

The 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck the provinces of Manabí and Esmeraldas on 16 April 2016 had major social and economic consequences in those regions: 671 people missing, more than 35,000 displaced, and an estimated USD 3 billion in damages. Over 1,000 public infrastructures were affected, including health centers and schools. Many Ecuadorians lost their jobs, and not all displaced families have been resettled.

At the official request of the Ecuadorian government, AFD provided support in response to the earthquake through two loans:

• USD 65 million was transferred to the Corporación Financiera Nacional (CFN), the country’s main public bank. This loan aimed to support housing reconstruction in the provinces of Manabí and Esmeraldas, and to help restore productive activities, particularly in the shrimp, fisheries, tourism, industrial, and agricultural sectors.
• A USD 35 million loan was granted to the Corporación Nacional de Finanzas Populares y Solidarias (CONAFIPS). These funds contribute to financing loan requests submitted through local cooperatives. They are earmarked for reconstruction or restoration projects for social housing damaged or destroyed by the earthquake in the provinces of Manabí, Los Ríos, Santa Elena, Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas, Guayas, and Esmeraldas.

The Ecuadorian government has adopted a proactive policy to transform the energy sector. Its goal is to shift the national energy mix by increasing the share of renewable energy, through the construction of hydropower plants, the replacement of gas with electricity in household consumption, and the optimization of the transmission and distribution network to reduce technical losses.

On 30 July 2015, in support of this national strategy, AFD granted a USD 100 million loan to the Ecuadorian government. The objective is to contribute to Ecuador’s economic growth by promoting a more reliable and efficient energy distribution system.

The financing will help strengthen electricity distribution networks and implement the Efficient Cooking Program. This program aims to replace gas stoves with low-consumption electric induction cooktops in order to reduce the use of imported non-renewable energy sources and promote the use of domestically generated electricity.

Guayaquil, the capital of Guayas Province, is Ecuador’s most populous city, with 2.3 million inhabitants according to the 2010 census. In 2017, AFD granted a USD 114 million loan to the Municipality of Guayaquil to support the development of an urban cable car system — a low-carbon mode of transportation.

The goal is to contribute to sustainable urban development in the Guayaquil metropolitan area through a cable car system that will cross the natural barrier of the Guayas River and reduce the isolation of the Municipality of Durán. For residents of Durán, the project will improve access to jobs and services in the city center.

AFD supports the work of NGOs in several key sectors: agriculture and food security (Agronomes et Vétérinaires Sans Frontières), human rights (the Enfance Sans Barreaux program with BICE), and economic inclusion (Groupe Développement – Acting for Life).

Following the earthquake, AFD launched a call for proposals to respond to the emergency, and today continues to support new NGO-led initiatives:

• The REACTIV project, led by Acting for Life, aims to boost the local economy in the aftermath of the earthquake.
• A project by Agronomes et Vétérinaires Sans Frontières to support small-scale producers of organic and fair trade cocoa.