CATIE participates in global scientific dialogue on development and environmental economics

• With new projects in environmental economics, CATIE will continue to promote the generation of scientific evidence for the design of more sustainable and inclusive public policies.

Investigadores de la Unidad de Economía Ambiental y Agronegocios Sostenibles (UEAAS/EfDResearchers from the Unit of Environmental Economics and Sustainable Agribusinesses (UEAAS/EfD) at CATIE (Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center) participated in the 19th Annual Meeting of the global network of research centers in environmental economics, Environment for Development (EfD) Home | EfD – Initiative. This meeting was organized by EfD-Tanzania and the School of Economics of the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSoE). The event took place from October 16 to 19 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Róger Madrigal, coordinator of UEAAS/EfD, highlighted the importance of CATIE’s participation in this meeting to consolidate the acquisition of new scientific research funds.

 “In a competitive process with other centers of the EfD network, we managed to obtain two new research projects in circular economy and water management in urban contexts. These projects will be led by CATIE and developed in collaboration with universities from the United States, Europe, and Africa. CATIE will therefore play an important role in the exchange of scientific knowledge and in the design of public policies on these topics among countries of the Global South,” stated Madrigal.

Specifically, the research project focused on water management is titled “Unlocking finance to support resilient water and sanitation service delivery in African cities,” and seeks to strengthen financial mechanisms to ensure more resilient water and sanitation services in African cities.

For his part, Pablo Evia, researcher and coordinator of the collaborative program on Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCOPE), led by CATIE with EfD funds, noted that the meeting made it possible to learn about the state of the art of research in environmental economics, as well as to strengthen ties with researchers interested in the topics addressed by the collaborative program, specifically in waste management, fast fashion, and electronic waste.

Another of the new environmental economics research projects to be led by CATIE, through SCOPE, is entitled “E-Waste and Textile Waste Challenges in the Global South: Laying the Groundwork for an Evidence-Based, Policy-Relevant Research Agenda”. This project aims to generate evidence on the flows, risks, and value dynamics associated with electronic and textile waste in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, India, and Mexico. The purpose is to strengthen waste governance in middle- and low-income countries through a diagnostic and co-creative approach with local actors, establishing a comparative basis that facilitates the design of more effective, inclusive, and ethically informed policies.

CATIE’s participation in this meeting demonstrates its commitment to collaborative research and the generation of policy-oriented knowledge that promotes sustainable development, equity, and environmental resilience in Latin America and the Global South.