Paula Valencia is an environmental and social specialist at IDB Invest, based in Washington, D.C. and she leads the agribusiness group within the Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance Division. She is responsible for evaluating environmental and social impacts and risks of agribusiness operations, proposing mitigation measures consistent with international best practices, supervising the performance and sustainability of projects, offering technical assistance to customers and generating knowledge products. She has extensive experience in the public and private sectors of Latin America and the Caribbean, having worked with the IDB Group for more than 15 years, primarily in agribusiness, financial intermediation, and manufacturing projects. Paula is an Industrial Engineer from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana (Colombia), she has a master's degree in environmental science and policy from Johns Hopkins University (United States) and other studies in agriculture from Cornell University (United States).
We have a unique opportunity that many other regions of the planet have not had, to drive the latest technological revolution in agribusiness with environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) factors, and further increase profitability in a sustainable and inclusive way.
TR4 has spread through banana cultivars across the world and jumped last year into Colombia. It is a perfectly deadly enemy for banana planters and one that leaves a clear lesson: one must be ready for worst-case pandemic scenarios and not simply pray for cures and hope for the best.
COVID-19 poses a threat to agricultural production in the largest net food exporting region in the world — Latin America and the Caribbean. Protecting workers’ health, economic activity, and employment requires a careful risk assessment.
ESG due diligence must contend with a slew of challenges. However, inadequately fast-tracking of it runs the risk of short-changing clients from much needed value added and risks negative impacts to stakeholders and the environment.