Partners of the Americas (PoA) announces the second phase of its ECPA Fellows Initiative, supported by the U.S. Department of State. The first grant awarded was very successful in the creation of partnerships across the Americas and concluded in September 2013.

During the first phase PoA coordinated 46 visits to 20 countries in the region and helping to facilitate the transfer of knowledge between the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean while promoting innovative solutions and technologies related to the areas of clean energy, sustainable urban development, climate change adaptation, and reducing emissions from deforestation. PoA will continue to facilitate technical assistance in the areas of clean energy, sustainable urban development, climate change adaptation, and reducing emissions from deforestation in the second phase. PoA will select and monitor two new energy innovation projects of the ECPA Fellows. One project will be awarded to address a climate challenge and one will be awarded to address a key energy challenge. Both projects will transfer knowledge and innovative ideas to local institutions in order to build local capacity and relationships between organizations across borders.

The ECPA Fellows phase two will be implemented in Central America and the Andean region. This phase will include the participation of two new fellows: David Williams, selected as one of Time Magazine’s Innovators of the Year in 2005, and Jigar Shah, author of the book, “Creating Climate Wealth: Unlocking the Impact Economy.”

The ECPA Fellows initiative is building a hemispheric network of technical experts working on energy and climate change to better engage and cooperate with each other by bringing together diverse actors from governments, civil society and the private sector to identify energy and climate change issues in the region and work towards sustainable solutions. For more information about this ECPA initiative, contact Elizabeth Lopez at elopez@partners.net.