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As of May 24, 2022, 43 companies have committed USD 458 million across 48 countries to support the Zero Hunger Private Sector Pledge. The largest individual commitments come from Bayer (USD 160 million) and PepsiCo (USD 100 million), with significant regional focus on Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

The programme targets seven catchments across Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, and the Dominican Republic to combat droughts and extreme rainfall. It employs a blended finance model consisting of a US$28 million grant facility for vulnerable communities, a US$102.8 million lending facility for EbA investments, and a US$30 million guarantee facility to de-risk lending for partner financial institutions. Key activities include reforestation, agroforestry, the installation of rainwater harvesting systems, and the establishment of a regional knowledge hub to mainstream EbA into national policies. The programme aims to directly benefit approximately 1.08 million people.

The author contends that U.S. foreign policy fails to recognize the complex drivers of forced displacement in Central America, specifically the intersection of extreme weather events and structural poverty. The text highlights how the Central American Dry Corridor is particularly vulnerable to droughts and storms, which destroy subsistence agriculture and drive migration. It further argues that many migrants are misclassified as 'economic migrants' when they are actually fleeing climate-induced food insecurity and systemic oppression, particularly among Indigenous groups. The author calls for a shift from a 'hard security' approach to a humanitarian framework based on 'common but differentiated responsibilities' to address the asylum and refugee needs of this population.

The document argues that agroecology, a science-based set of practices and social movement, offers a sustainable alternative to industrial agriculture, which accounts for up to 37% of global greenhouse gas emissions. It highlights that approximately 30% of global farms have already adopted agroecological principles, leading to increased crop yields, higher farmer incomes, and improved biodiversity. However, the briefing notes that scaling up these practices is hindered by governance and finance systems that heavily subsidize industrial agriculture, with only 1%-1.5% of agricultural and aid budgets currently supporting agroecological approaches. To overcome these barriers, the document recommends reorienting public funding, integrating agroecology into research and education, and increasing the participation of small-scale producers in food governance.

The report identifies significant opportunities for green finance in Central America and the Caribbean (CAC), noting that while the market is small with only six deals to date, there is high potential for expansion in renewable energy, low-carbon transport, sustainable water and waste management, sustainable agriculture, and the blue economy. It highlights the role of the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) and regional stock exchanges in driving this growth, while providing a guide for issuers to align with international standards like the Climate Bonds Taxonomy.

The report analyzes the green finance landscape in Central America and the Caribbean (CAC), noting that while the market is small—with only six green bond issuances as of June 2020—there is significant potential for growth in renewable energy, low-carbon transport, sustainable water, and waste management. It highlights the role of the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) and the leadership of Costa Rica in climate ambition. The document provides a step-by-step guide for green financing and explores emerging opportunities in sustainable agriculture and the blue economy, while discussing the economic disruptions caused by COVID-19 and the 2020 hurricane season.

The GCF Board's 27th meeting resulted in the adoption of the Updated Strategic Plan (2020–2023), which sets goals for the first replenishment period (GCF-1), including a 50:50 balance between mitigation and adaptation funding. The Board approved 15 funding proposals, including several REDD-plus and Simplified Approval Process (SAP) projects, and accredited four new entities. The meeting also covered the 2021 administrative budget, work plans for independent units, and discussions on the Integrated Results Management Framework (IRMF) and the MOPAN assessment.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has requested that Nicaragua implement precautionary measures to protect Olman Salazar Umanor, a member of the National Environmental Movement Against Industrial Mining (MONAFMI) and Coordinator of the Santa Cruz de la India Community Movement, and his nuclear family due to serious risks to their life and personal integrity. The Commission condemned the increasing harassment of human rights defenders and government opponents in Nicaragua and demanded that the state initiate an investigation into the situation and report back on the implementation of protective measures within 15 days.

Developing countries are increasingly facing 'compound shocks'—simultaneous or sequential disruptive events like pandemics, economic crises, and climate-driven disasters—which deplete budgets and cause cascading system failures. The authors argue that the current disaster risk finance architecture over-incentivizes ex post relief over ex ante preparedness. To address this, they propose that the World Bank's IDA offer softer financing terms (higher grant components) to countries that commit to specific resilience investments in data collection, regulatory reform, budgetary frameworks, and early warning systems. Additionally, they recommend introducing automatic 'disaster clauses' in IDA debt to defer payments following major shocks, similar to models used by Grenada and Barbados. Finally, the document proposes transforming the Global Risk Financing Facility (GRiF) into a Financial Intermediary Fund (FIF) to increase its operational independence, broaden its donor base beyond Germany and the United Kingdom, and better support regional risk pools and risk measurement capacity.

The document details a series of record-breaking climate events in 2020, including an unprecedented number of billion-dollar disasters in the US, extreme wildfires in California and Colorado, and devastating tropical cyclones in the Philippines and the Bay of Bengal. It highlights that 2020 was on pace to be the second-hottest year on record and notes the acceleration of Arctic sea ice retreat. Experts cited in the text emphasize that these events are driven by human-caused climate change and call for urgent climate action and funding for affected poor populations.

The proposal aims to overcome institutional and financial barriers in Nicaragua by strengthening the capacity of the National Designated Authority (MHCP) and a Direct Access Entity applicant (MARENA). Key activities include enhancing project selection procedures, developing a climate finance monitoring system in the Municipality of Managua, closing accreditation gaps for MARENA through new fiduciary and gender policies, and drafting a national Green Growth Strategy. The project also intends to develop three concept notes for climate funding, with implementation led by the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) over an 18-month period.

The 2020 assessment concludes that the goal of restoring 150 million hectares of forest by 2020 is not on track, with global forest cover gain meeting only one fifth of the target. While political will is evident through 63 Bonn Challenge pledges totaling 172.82 million hectares, biophysical progress is hindered by data gaps and the fact that tree cover gains are often offset by ongoing deforestation. A case study of Central America highlights this dynamic, showing a net loss of 320 million hectares of tree cover between 2011 and 2018 despite significant gross gains. The report notes a growing trend of private-sector restoration pledges from companies like Amazon and Nestle, though financial transparency and systematic planning remain significant hurdles for scaling forest landscape restoration (FLR).

The document is a Readiness support proposal submitted by UNEP to the Green Climate Fund (GCF) for a project titled "Increasing the ambition of the NDCs and climate financing in the Central América." It targets five countries: El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic. The project aims to address gaps in regional coordination, institutional legal frameworks, and Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) systems. Key objectives include designing market-based financial instruments to attract private sector investment, integrating NDCs with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and COVID-19 recovery plans, and establishing a regional digital platform for investment information. The total requested amount is USD 1,249,986.00 for an implementation period of 18 months.

The document argues that Latin American countries failed to coordinate their COVID-19 responses, contrasting this with the coordinated efforts seen in Africa. It highlights how the dismantling of regional health mechanisms, political denialism in Brazil and Mexico, and the instrumentalisation of multilateral organisations like PAHO hampered the region's ability to manage the crisis. The author notes that this lack of coordination, combined with underfunded healthcare systems and pre-existing economic vulnerabilities, led to high death rates and severe economic contractions, disproportionately affecting women and those in informal settlements.

The report examines Indigenous community broadcasting in 19 countries across Africa, Asia, North America, Central America, South America, and Oceania. It finds that while community radio is generally recognized, specific legal status for Indigenous-led stations is rare, with only four of fifteen countries that recognize community radio also recognizing Indigenous community radio. The study identifies 609 Indigenous community radio stations globally, with Canada and Australia accounting for 42% of the total. Key findings highlight the role of these stations in language revitalization, land defense, and the transfer of traditional knowledge, while also noting significant threats including government repression, criminalization of unlicensed broadcasters, and financial instability.

The document outlines a readiness project implemented by the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) to support 13 accredited and applicant Direct Access Entities (DAEs) within the International Development Finance Club (IDFC). The project aims to remove barriers to GCF accreditation and funding by providing technical assistance for fiduciary, environmental, social, and gender policies, and by developing climate finance tools for risk and impact assessment. Key deliverables include an IDFC-GCF Toolkit, a joint DAE-IDFC Work Program, and the development of multi-country concept notes focusing on climate-resilient recovery post-COVID-19, specifically targeting MSMEs and vulnerable populations in sectors like renewable energy and sustainable land use.

The paper argues that while existing climate services primarily support short-term farming decisions, they must be expanded to include decadal and long-term projections to guide transformative adaptation—significant systemic changes to agricultural production. A review of 253 national documents found that only 2.7% describe transformative applications of CS. The authors recommend integrating long-term climate data with crop models and socioeconomic factors to identify viability thresholds and map adaptation pathways, while emphasizing the need to modernize National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHS) and ensure equitable access for marginalized farmers.

The document outlines a 24-month readiness project requesting USD 1,312,296 to support eight Central American countries in developing a regional GCF concept note. The initiative targets the protection of the 'Five Great Forests'—transboundary forest systems spanning from Mexico to Colombia—by addressing illegal cattle ranching, strengthening Indigenous land tenure, and aligning national climate strategies (NDCs). Key activities include stakeholder mapping, vulnerability assessments for Indigenous Peoples, the creation of a land tenure database, and the development of economic models for forest-based livelihoods.

The IAI and CLARA have entered into a non-binding agreement to promote regional scientific capacities through the use of advanced networks, focusing on data management, open publications, and technological infrastructure for global change research in Latin America.

The document argues that formal land titles are often used as a proxy for tenure security but frequently fail to provide women with actual control over land due to discriminatory laws, customary norms, and lack of access to resources. It highlights that individual titling can conflict with indigenous collective tenure systems and may even lead to dispossession. To achieve genuine security, the author recommends gender-equitable normative frameworks, the inclusion of women in land governance, and ancillary support such as technical training and credit access.