ICLEI and KfW scale up safety net for cities €58 million, linking disaster risk insurance and adaptation finance

ProUrbano brings together two complementary facilities to help cities protect people, infrastructure, and livelihoods.

BELéM, PARá, BRAZIL, November 13, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- At COP30, ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability, together with the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and KfW, the German Development Bank, launched the next phase of ProUrbano, its pioneering urban resilience finance program in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Building on the achievements over the last four years, ICLEI and KfW are extending their partnership to offer cities in Latin America and the Caribbean an additional 46 million euro for risk transfer and risk reduction and climate adaptation, taking the total value of the ProUrbano program to over 58 million euro until 2030.

Under ProUrbano, two complementary instruments – the Urban Infrastructure Insurance Facility (UIIF) and the Urban Adaptation Financing Facility (UAFF) – will help cities better understand and transfer climate risks, and finance adaptation measures.

ProUrbano builds on the success of the first phase of UIIF, which brought together ten cities across four countries in the region – Acapulco de Juárez, Belo Horizonte, Benito Juárez, Buenos Aires, Curitiba, Mérida, Porto Alegre, Recife, Reynosa, Tegucigalpa – to co-design and pilot innovative municipal insurance solutions. These tools enable cities to collectively pool risk, access private insurance markets, and protect critical public infrastructure while prioritizing vulnerable populations.

The new phase expands this approach and links it directly with access to adaptation finance through UAFF. By helping cities turn risk data into financeable projects, ProUrbano aims to strengthen the resilience of local governments and reduce the long-term costs of climate-related disasters.
Gino Van Begin, Secretary General of ICLEI, said: “Our members have been very clear: They need practical, scalable tools to finance adaptation, along with strategies and data. ProUrbano is our response to that demand. Together with the BMZ and KfW, we are building a new safety net for cities—designed with cities, for cities—so that when the unavoidable happens, no community is left behind.”

Christiane Laibach, Executive Board Member, KfW Development Bank representative, added:“Cities are on the frontline of climate change, but too often they lack access to reliable and timely financing when disasters strike. Through UIIF, we are helping them pool risks and work directly with insurers, while UAFF ensures that this knowledge translates into investments in resilience. ProUrbano is an innovative financial tool and bridge between preparedness and financing.”

Natascha Beinker, Head of the Division for Climate Policy, BMZ, emphasized: "The German government is committed to strengthening the resilience of cities against climate impacts. We already support the Global Shield against Climate Risks, a global climate risk finance initiative designed for sovereign-level needs. ProUrbano complements this with an equitable, locally driven initiative tailored to the needs of municipalities. Together, we deliver rapid and reliable climate risk finance to the communities most at risk."

Sebastião Melo, Mayor of Porto Alegre, shared the city perspective: “Extreme events are testing our ability to respond and recover. Having access to insurance and finance tools that we co-designed as cities changes everything. It gives us immediate liquidity after disasters and the confidence to plan for long-term resilience.”

By linking insurance and finance with local policy and planning, ProUrbano represents a new generation of resilience programs linking risk understanding to financial empowerment and accelerating adaptation in the region’s most climate-exposed urban areas.

The initiative will now begin onboarding new cities across Latin America and the Caribbean. Local governments interested in joining UIIF II can find details through ICLEI’s website or by contacting their regional ICLEI office.

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About ProUrbano
ProUrbano is an initiative led by ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability, supported by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) through the German Development Bank (KfW). It brings together the Urban Infrastructure Insurance Facility (UIIF II) and the Urban Adaptation Financing Facility (UAFF) to strengthen urban resilience by helping cities identify, transfer, and finance climate and disaster risks management.

Ariel Dekovic
ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability
+49 228 97629919
email us here

ProUrbano: A new safety net for cities in Latin America and the Caribbean

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