Guyana among Amazon countries hoping to raise US$1 billion for infrastructure projects

Last Updated on Tuesday, 11 November 2025, 23:13 by Writer

BELÉM, Brazil – Amazon countries – Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, and Suriname – on Tuesday launched the Amazonia Forever Facility for Cities and Resilient Infrastructure, a regional alliance that seeks to mobilize more than $1 billion to accelerate investments in water security, clean energy, and resilient urban infrastructure, with a multisectoral and territorial approach, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) said in a statement.

The initiative, led by the Amazonia Network of Ministers of Finance and Planning, was formalized through a joint declaration signed by member states. It is supported by the Inter-American Development Bank Group (IDB Group), within the framework of its flagship Amazonia Forever program, and is backed by multilateral climate funds, bilateral donors, and local leaders.

The new facility will leverage innovative financial mechanisms – including blended financing, performance-based concessionality schemes, mechanisms for mitigating exchange-rate risk, and credit-substitution guarantees – while providing technical assistance for infrastructure projects in urban and peri-urban areas.

The IDB Group is the leading source of financing and knowledge for improving lives in Latin America and the Caribbean. It comprises the IDB, which works with the region’s public sector and enables the private sector, IDB Invest, which directly supports private companies and projects, and IDB Lab, which spurs entrepreneurial innovation.

Amazonia Forever is the IDB Group’s regional coordination program that aims to protect biodiversity and accelerate sustainable development through three lines of action: expanding innovative financing, boosting knowledge exchange, and facilitating regional coordination among the eight countries that the Amazon encompasses.

Brazil’s Planning and Budget Minister Simone Tebet formalized the launch in her capacity as chair of the Amazonia Network of Ministers of Finance and Planning.

“This important tool will enable us to take action not only on forest and water resources, but also on urban challenges, since cities are home to the vast majority of the Amazonian population. In this way, we are strategically complementing efforts on these two fronts of the region’s environmental challenges,” she said.

“This facility is a practical example of what Amazonia Forever is all about; providing people with livelihoods and jobs in the region’s cities is the best way to preserve the forest,” said IDB Group President Ilan Goldfajn. “And building resilient infrastructure helps protect around 60 million people who call the Amazon home.”

More than 70% of the population of the Amazon region, or Amazonia, lives in cities and peri-urban areas, which face gaps in water, sanitation, adequate solid-waste management, energy, mobility, and risk management for extreme events. Addressing these challenges is essential not only for improving people’s quality of life, but also to protect forests, according to a recent IDB study prepared by more than 60 experts.

The Amazonia Forever Facility comes with new support from international partners to promote climate-resilient infrastructure, clean energy, connectivity, and sustainable urbanization in the Amazon region. Among them:

• Denmark, Norway, and Sweden committed to work toward signing a guarantee which will enable the IDB to increase its lending capacity for clean-energy projects within the Amazonia Forever and América en el Centro programs by $800 million.
• The IDB’s Water Security and Climate Resilience Program in Amazonia, in partnership with the Green Climate Fund (GCF), will deploy $162 million in concessional financing, technical assistance, and pre-investment resources for resilient infrastructure projects in drinking water, sanitation, drainage, and solid-waste management, as well as improvements to early-warning systems and strengthened cross-border cooperation.
• The Clean Energy Access Accelerator in the Amazon, supported by the Climate Investment Funds (CIF), will provide $215 million in concessional resources and grants to expand universal access to clean energy and clean cooking solutions, and promote the adoption of emerging technologies.
• The Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) contributed 6 million euros to the IDB’s Spanish Cooperation Fund for Water and Sanitation in Latin America and the Caribbean, with a focus on the Amazon.