Rockefeller Foundation To Open New Office in Latin America

Announced during event co-hosted by Compaz Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, and WWF in Bogotá, Colombia

BOGOTÁ, COLOMBIA | August 27, 2024 ― The Rockefeller Foundation announced today that it will open a new Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) for the first time in two decades. As part of its global commitment to invest more than USD 1 billion over five years to advance the global climate transition and help ensure everyone can participate in it, The Rockefeller Foundation will work alongside regional leaders, local stakeholders, and partners, incorporate lessons learned, and adapt its work as needed to help achieve measurable outcomes for people in the LAC region and the planet. The philanthropy plans to base its regional presence in Colombia in 2025 and will appoint a new Vice President to build it.

The announcement was made during the “People, Nature, and Climate in Latin America and the Caribbean” event in Bogotá, Colombia, which The Rockefeller Foundation co-hosted with the Compaz Foundation and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Colombia. Showcasing several grantees of The Rockefeller Foundation, the event featured remarks by former President of Colombia and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Juan Manuel Santos, Mayor of Bogotá Carlos Galán, Mayor of Cali Álvaro Alejandro Eder Garcés, Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development of Colombia Susana Muhamad, Executive President of CAF Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean Sergio Diaz-Granados, former Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Christiana Figueres, and other leaders.

“We have a window of opportunity over the next several years to support the region and its leaders in catalyzing a period of green, inclusive growth, not only to improve our development, but to save the planet,” said Juan Manuel Santos, who served as President of Colombia from 2010-2018 and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2016. He created Compaz Foundation to promote peacebuilding in Colombia and around the world, and is a current Trustee of The Rockefeller Foundation. “To do so effectively, and to support countries’ efforts to achieve their climate and development goals, I am pleased that The Rockefeller Foundation will establish an expanded, permanent presence in this dynamic region.”

“The Rockefeller Foundation is proud of our work on behalf of the most vulnerable in Latin America and the Caribbean over the last century and the last few years. Today, many individuals and institutions in the region are proving what’s possible when we identify innovative people-centered climate solutions, forge unlikely partnerships, and measure our progress until we succeed,” said Dr. Rajiv J. Shah, President of The Rockefeller Foundation. “Because of the risks and opportunities to people’s well-being in LAC, The Rockefeller Foundation looks forward to re-establishing an office here and continuing to support those helping slow the climate crisis and advance human opportunity in the region.”

The announcement comes as LAC is set to host several major global climate events this year including the 16th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP16) on Oct. 21-Nov. 1, in Colombia; G20 on Nov. 18-19, in Brazil; with United Nation’s Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP30) also returning to the region for the fifth time in 30 years when Brazil hosts the international climate meeting in November 2025.

Home to 669 million people across 33 diverse countries, LAC is uniquely vulnerable to climate change because of its geographic location, persistent inequality, and reliance on climate-sensitive economic activity. According to the United Nations, climate change threatens the lives and livelihoods of 41 million people in LAC. The region is already experiencing extreme weather events, including mega-droughts, extreme rainfall, heatwaves, rising sea levels, and deforestation. Despite these challenges, LAC is also endowed with valuable natural assets that position it to play a significant role in the global green transition – including an estimated 50% of the world’s biodiversity and a significant share of critical minerals.

With more than a century of investing in the region and convening some of its brightest minds, The Rockefeller Foundation set up its first LAC office during the late 1930s, focusing on improving health and agriculture sectors, developing rural communities, and establishing universities. Although its physical presence in the region ended in the early 2000s, the Foundation’s investments have continued, with ongoing projects across an initial ten countries: Barbados, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Trinidad and Tobago. This includes, but is not limited to:

• Launching the 1st cohort of Big Bets Climate Fellows. In its inaugural year, 16 leaders with projects based in Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Panama, and Puerto Rico were selected to advance solutions intended to reverse the climate crisis and accelerate opportunity across the region, with a focus on the Amazon Basin.

• Investing in native species reforestation through The Amazon Reforestation Fund. The Rockefeller Foundation committed catalytic capital to support Mombak, a Brazilian carbon removal startup, in its $100 million Amazon reforestation strategy. Seeking to become one of the largest biodiverse reforestation efforts for carbon removal in the region, Microsoft Corp. has also agreed to purchase as many as 1.5 million carbon removal credits generated through its reforestation of degraded Brazilian pastureland using native and biodiverse tree species, and earlier this month, the World Bank issued its largest outcome bond, $255 million, for reforestation efforts, including Mombak’s. This bond is the first of its kind to link investors’ returns to carbon removal from the atmosphere through reforestation in the Amazon.

• Strengthening food security and regenerative agricultural solutions. The Rockefeller Foundation provided grant funding to Fundación para la Aplicación y Enseñanza de la Ciencia (FUNDAEC) to promote locally-centered agroecology to address food insecurity for impoverished communities in Colombia and to the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), a non-profit research-for-development organization that develops improved varieties of wheat and maize. The Rockefeller Foundation’s grant to CIMMYT is in support of research on regenerative agricultural practices on farms in Mexico.

• Protecting the health of the most vulnerable. The Rockefeller Foundation supports community-driven solutions to address the health impacts of climate change by integrating best practices from both traditional and Western medicine in frontline communities in the Amazon Basin. It is also commissioning economic research to better understand the cost of climate-health threats to small island states, including Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago.

• Engaging the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). In July 2024, PAHO Member States recognized The Rockefeller Foundation as an official Non-State-Actor in Official Relations. The Foundation will work with PAHO to advance knowledge and capacity building of LAC health professionals and institutions to address climate change.

• Supporting the G20 Brazil Presidency. In support of the G20 Joint Finance and Health Taskforce and The Rockefeller Foundation’s work to advance climate and health finance, The Rockefeller Foundation commissioned a report on the potential benefits of debt swaps for health to address urgent health priorities with the G20 Brazil Presidency.

• Scaling access to environmental monitoring technologies. The Rockefeller Foundation’s grant to Earth Genome is expanding access to environmental monitoring technologies for indigenous communities across the world, including Brazil, so they can more effectively protect their local environments and manage their natural heritage.

• Supporting an adaptive cities solution framework. With an initial focus on Santiago, Chile, The Rockefeller Foundation is supporting an adaptive cities solution framework, driven forward by Dalberg Catalyst, which aims to strengthen urban centers’ capacity to respond to climate challenges such as extreme heat by integrating data and applying open digital twin technology.

• Building a diversified portfolio of high-quality nature-based solutions. The Rockefeller Foundation has grant funded, alongside other partners, The Nature Conservancy’s Natural Climate Solutions Accelerator, which stewards projects from first concept to investability with technical and financial support through its global portfolio, including approximately 25% Latin America exposure.

• Advancing the Bridgetown Initiative. The Rockefeller Foundation collaborated with Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley on the Bridgetown Initiative, a bold set of reforms to the global finance system, to enable more and better funding for development and climate needs. 

In addition, the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP), which The Rockefeller Foundation co-founded with the IKEA Foundation and Bezos Earth Fund in 2021, is also:

• Investing in meshgrids to electrify Haiti. To date, GEAPP has supported 3,000 connections to electricity for homes and businesses across rural Haiti with meshgrids, a novel distributed renewable energy technology that has shown immense potential to overcome scalability and viability challenges in emerging economies like Haiti and in rural electrification in general.

• Partnering with the IDB to expand rural energy access and the energy transition. GEAPP’s partnership with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has demonstrated the value of philanthropic capital, where approximately $10 million from GEAPP has supported 12 projects in 15 countries across Latin America and leveraged more than $300 million in investment from other funders to date.

Approved by The Rockefeller Foundation’s Board of Trustees in June, the new LAC office will initially concentrate on four key areas to enhance the quality of its impact in the region: (1) leverage regional intelligence and local expertise to support solution development and execution; (2) source regional opportunities where the Foundation can play a unique role; (3) strengthen existing relationships and advance future connections that deepen understanding of regional climate priorities and policies; and (4) convene regional events and promote collaboration for climate and social impact. It will also expand The Rockefeller Foundation’s capacity to deliver impact at scale alongside its current offices in New York, NY; Washington, DC; Bangkok, Thailand; Nairobi, Kenya; and a conference center in Bellagio, Italy.

For additional information about some of The Rockefeller Foundation’s recent work in the region, see the latest edition of Matter of Impact, which spotlights innovators and local communities that are spearheading the climate change fight: From the Andes to the Amazon, Latin America’s Climate Frontlines.

 Statements of Support 

• “Facing the challenges of the climate crisis and biodiversity loss requires urgent action to ensure that both agendas advance in a manner that is not only ambitious but also coordinated and coherent with the realities of the territories. This year, from Cali to Belém, offers a unique window for our ambitions in Colombia and the region, for example, to avoid reaching the point of no return in the Amazon, to be translated into effective implementation supported by adequate funding.” ― Sandra Valenzuela, CEO, WWF Colombia 
• “Latin America is a region of hope for a sustainable future, with its immense biodiversity, cultural richness, and critical minerals for the energy transition. At Avina, we are thrilled to celebrate the announcement by The Rockefeller Foundation to establish a regional presence from 2025 onwards. This is great news for the region and the world, as it signifies a strengthened commitment to harnessing the unique potential of Latin America.” ― Paula Ellinger, Director for Social Innovation, Fundación Avina 
• “Reflection and exchange spaces like this one are crucial to integrating and amplifying the voices of groups such as youth, women, rural, and Indigenous communities to influence climate and biodiversity policies. We need to democratize the climate agenda.” ― Fernando Alonso, Manager for Democratic Innovations Program, Fundación Avina
• “It is great to welcome back The Rockefeller Foundation physical presence in the region and even greater that they choose Colombia as its regional hub. Ford Foundation partnered with Rockefeller during decades on innovative solutions for justice and equality in Latin America. Challenges and context have changed, but ideals and goals remain the same: To work together supporting Latin American efforts for a sustainable and equitable development, with a focus on the devastating impacts of climate change. Colombia and Latin America have very important lessons to share and, as before, we are ready to partner with The Rockefeller Foundation in this endeavor.”— Javier Ciurlizza, Director, Andean Region, The Ford Foundation
• “Reflection and exchange spaces like this one are crucial to integrating and amplifying the voices of groups such as youth, women, rural, and Indigenous communities to influence climate and biodiversity policies. We need to democratize the climate agenda.” ― Fernando Alonso, Manager for Democratic Innovations Program, Fundación Avina

About The Rockefeller Foundation

The Rockefeller Foundation is a pioneering philanthropy built on collaborative partnerships at the frontiers of science, technology, and innovation that enable individuals, families, and communities to flourish. We make big bets to promote the well-being of humanity. Today, we are focused on advancing human opportunity and reversing the climate crisis by transforming systems in food, health, energy, and finance. For more information, sign up for our newsletter at www.rockefellerfoundation.org/subscribe  and follow us on X @RockefellerFdn and LI @the-rockefeller-foundation.