ID: 1948
Presenting Author: Adriana Paredes
Session: 652 - EA in Latin America: Bridging Infrastructure and Communities for Sustainable Development
Status: pending
Early, inclusive participation under the World Bank’s ESF in Ecuador’s transport project shows how preventive environmental and social management builds resilience, sustainability, and community trust
Across Latin America, institutional frameworks for environmental and social management are advancing toward higher standards, but key challenges remain. The World Bank’s analysis in Ecuador identified gaps such as limited participation, weak technical capacity, and poor coordination on issues like indigenous inclusion, land, and resettlement. These deficiencies often result in conflicts, environmental impacts, and project delays.
Applying international standards, particularly the Bank’s Environmental and Social Framework (ESF), helps address these challenges by promoting early, inclusive, and meaningful participation within a comprehensive assessment process. When integrated from the planning stage, this approach strengthens project quality, minimizes risks, and enhances sustainability.
The World Bank financed Emergency Resilient Reconstruction Project exemplifies this preventive approach. Designed under an emergency framework, it targets areas of high environmental and geological risk. The Zumbahua subproject, located in a fragile Andean páramo within indigenous territories in Cotopaxi, applied a Free, Prior, and Informed Consultation (FPIC) process under ESS7 and ESS10. This resulted in reduced impacts, a modified road alignment to avoid resettlement and landslide-prone zones, and measures to protect the páramo’s ecological integrity.
The case demonstrates that integrating environmental and social management from a preventive perspective not only strengthens sustainability and resilience but also builds legitimacy and trust in complex socio-environmental contexts.
World Bank Environmental Specialist focused on ESF standards, social risk management, and sustainability to strengthen resilience in infrastructure development.
Coauthor 1: Daniel Reinoso