CIERP Alumni Perspectives: A Conversation with Claudia Ortiz

By Clarice Torres Coutinho

The opportunity to speak with Claudia Ortiz (F’10) was very inspiring. I had the chance to speak with her about her career dedicated to supporting countries worldwide (and for the past 2.5 years, focusing on Latin America) on climate policy and finance.

Claudia Ortiz, F’10

In her current position as Climate Change Strategies Specialist at UNDP, Claudia works to source countries with strategies to implement national climate policies. Prior to this role, she supported countries to access financing for adaptation and mitigation projects, including from the Green Climate Fund and the Global Environment Facility.

Our conversation reminded me the phrase from my favorite book, "Las venas abiertas de la America Latina" written by Eduardo Galeano, ""¿Equitativamente? Ciertamente es necesario salvaguardar la igualdad de oportunidades." Access to quality education focused on civic, environmental, and social values and entrepreneur culture might be the vectors to lead Latin American communities into a transformational development pathway that seeks to safeguard the natural environment on which they rely and make optimal use of economic resources and investments for a much-needed green economic recovery post-pandemic.

I felt inspired to have this conversation with Claudia, seeking more visibility and equity for Latinos.

From your experience, is it possible to promote change in Latin America without government participation?

I think change can happen without government participation. My working experience has been mostly with the governments, given I work for international organizations that serve them. The government has heavy involvement in promoting local programs. The work I do involves supporting access to grants available for climate action from multilateral funds, which are then executed by these governments, along with national partners, whether civil society or even the private sector. In most Latin American countries, there is the challenge that the political cycles of government (and political parties in power) are short (4 to 6 years).

Due to the lengthy grant disbursement processes from international organizations, sometimes the same project can span two or more political cycles, causing disruptions in implementation due to staff turnover and policy and strategic vision changes. More recently, international organizations and multilateral climate and environmental funds are finding approaches to engage the private and national financial sectors more actively to ensure sustainability and an exit strategy for such higher-risk projects.

In Mexico, for example, regardless of the government, you see a youth generation tackling on the promotion of environmental causes, climate action, and social change. Social entrepreneurs and venture capital for impact investing, whether for nature conservation, clean energy, or financial inclusion, are rising in the region.

In Colombia and Brazil, we see solid advocacy to promote women's rights, raise indigenous voices, and urge governments to raise the ambition in the climate agenda. However, in most of our continent, we are still a long way to mainstream causes like environmental protection or climate change conscience in the operations of the private sector, beyond corporate social responsibility.

We are talking about advocacy coming from the society to raise awareness and focus on serious action to mitigate emissions in the region. It reminds me how important education is for advocacy. And how, due to COVID the young generation in Latin America is experiencing already an education shortfall. How do you feel about it?

For sure, the closure of schools for over a year, due to COVID-19 caused many young people to drop out of their studies. Unfortunately, in the last 18-20 months, the disease-prevention measures taken by Latin American countries provide catastrophic for the education sector. In a report published in November/2020, UNICEF stated that as of August 2020 around 137 million (~97% of the students in the region) children were missing school since March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Some children are still missing school due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the region.

As a result, young people end up abandoning education altogether or, worse illicit activities (dropout rate forecasted by UNICEF is 3.1 million children). And in poorest areas among 3.6 million children in the range of 3-4 years old were affected, as online learning is simply impractical for their age, and the social skills obtained in school during these years cannot be replaced with screens.  Foremost, online learning access in most rural areas is compromised due to low connectivity, and most families cannot afford digital devices for their children.

Not to mention most schools could not shift entire curricula to digital and remote modalities swiftly. I also think that this opens an opportunity to re-think the current curriculum in the education system. The schools should invest more in engaging students in activities to actively improve their communities, including the local environment and ecosystems.

Could climate finance be utilized to improve education?

Yes, most multilateral, and bilateral climate funds allow for knowledge development and capacity building at the local level, in the projects they finance. For example, in Costa Rica, a project on climate-resilience for the water sector, funded by the Global Environment Facility, involved reforestation techniques to safeguard the hydrological cycle, for which stakeholders saw an opportunity to actively involve and educate local youth and schools. Later, participants can transfer this knowledge to their communities, and even the schools can incorporate the training.

Are the banks and national and international institutions able to offer financial instruments to support climate change projects?

Yes, banks and national and international financial institutions are finding more and more approaches to recognize the risks posed by climate change in their portfolios as well as financial mechanisms and blended finance models to invest in climate solutions. Our culturally diverse region has a significant young population (over 150 million people) who are becoming involved in transforming the current systems; they are faster and more innovative. Private start-ups focused on the circular economy, waste management, nature investments, etc., are bubbling around the continent.

While I lived and worked in Panama for UNDP, I met with a coalition of young entrepreneurs dedicated to green solutions for waste management, including recycling, trash conversion, composting, and landfill management. They did not rely on or wait for the government's policies to change to make their businesses easier; they were acutely aware of the political and institutional barriers, yet, as entrepreneurs, they saw a business opportunity in a community that is increasing in environmental conscience and awareness. And thus, they succeed.

Do you have any suggestions or advice for students interested in the energy field at Fletcher?

Internship abroad. If you decide to work in development, you need to get out there and test your diplomatic and problem-solving skills in foreign lands. Working in headquarters is for sure easier after you have proved yourself in different cultural and social spheres. In my internship abroad in Turkey, I learned a lot about water and energy issues in the region and cooperation diplomacy. In addition, I tested my diplomatic skills, which proved helpful for my career as an international civil servant. ∎

Clarice Torres Coutinho is a second-year MALD student at The Fletcher School, Tufts University.

This is the second of three posts in CIERP and CPL’s Hispanic Heritage Month blog series. Read Alfredo Ramirez’ interview with Diego Ortiz here.