Environmental Feasibility Study for Paraguay

Since the beginning of the 1990s, the EU and Paraguay have been gradually strengthening their ties. The European Union (EU) was very active in Paraguay, specially supporting the Agenda for Change and the Strategic Framework and Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy. The priorities under an era of climate change threats have shifted and the EU is highly committed now to the New Green Deal to respond to the challenges of climate change and Paraguay´s economy and ecosystems are extremely exposed to the risks of deforestation and climate change impacts.

The EU Delegation (EUD) in Asuncion requested technical assistance to identify strategic areas of support the future EU cooperation with Paraguay in the sector of environment ́protection and fight against climate change. The goal of this proposed assignment is to analyse the specific environmental and climate change challenges in Paraguay and to shape the EU support to the Government in this sector.

The objective of this Inception Report was to present the proposed approach, methodology and action plan of this technical assistance.

The expected results

• An analysis of the environmental and climate change challenges and opportunities in the sector
• To provide reliable evidence on the environmental hazards (climate change, deforestation, air pollution, water and land degradation, and biodiversity)
• To analyze the coherence and pertinence of sectoral policies and legislation
• Review the existing institutional capacities and resources; to analyze coordination roles and stakeholders leaderships, socio-economic interests
• To propose areas of support, objectives and expected result indicating alternative modalities of interventions and instruments for the future EU support to the sector in Paraguay in the framework of the Team Europe Initiative.

The anticipated outputs

• A political economy analysis of the current situation in the environment and climate change sectors, including: i) the main challenges and constraints, ii) the analysis of the main relevant policies and programmes, iii) the institutional set-up, iv) a stakeholders analysis and a mapping of existing environmental projects; types and concentration of their benefits
• A proposal for areas of support for the future EU cooperation with Paraguay
• A Preliminary identification (specific objectives, expected results, activities, indicators and overall estimated budget) of an EU programme in one of the proposed areas.