Translate by Andrés Martínez Forero
Bogotá, My City, My Home is strengthening its ties with multilateral development banks to advance key projects across the city. On the morning of Thursday, September 3, 2026, Carlos Fernando Galán, Mayor of Bogotá, announced the approval of a US$150 million direct loan from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) for Bogotá, without a sovereign guarantee from Colombia’s national government.
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The announcement was made during the IDB Cities Network Mayors’ Meeting and marks an important step toward enabling subnational governments to access new sources of financing directly. Bogotá was selected to take part in the IDB’s pilot program for this type of financing.
“Since I took office, there has been a great deal of discussion about the need to enable cities to access financing directly, without requiring the national government to act as guarantor. Thanks to that progress, we can now announce that the loan was approved yesterday without a sovereign guarantee. This opens the door to a new source of financing for many other cities in Colombia and across Latin America,” Mayor Carlos Fernando Galán said.
Funding will focus on three areas
The first is urban revitalization, with improvements planned in 80 neighborhoods, including roads, parks, urban greening projects and Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems.
Ramiro López, the IDB’s representative in Colombia, highlighted that this component will improve public spaces such as parks and sidewalks, as well as street lighting, directly benefiting households in these neighborhoods.
The second area will focus on waste management. Bogotá will address 100 illegal dumping hotspots for household waste and construction debris, while expanding efforts to recover materials that currently end up at these sites and return them to productive use.
The program will also provide support to 5,000 recycling workers. Bogotá is home to approximately 26,000 recycling workers and is working to establish specialized facilities to strengthen the sorting and recovery of recyclable materials and better integrate these workers into the city’s waste management system.
The program will also introduce information tools to monitor the performance of the city’s waste collection system and its operators, together with civic engagement initiatives designed to encourage more responsible waste management practices.
The third component will focus on strengthening the technical capacity of Bogotá’s cadastral authority through improved information tools designed to make property registration and cadastral procedures faster and easier for residents.
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The three-year program will benefit 520,000 families and support coordinated action across urban revitalization, waste management and the modernization of the city’s information systems.
With this support, Bogotá is strengthening its relationship with multilateral development banks and advancing initiatives to improve neighborhoods, transform waste management and modernize the information the city relies on to manage its services and resources.
*This article was created using information provided by the Bogotá’s International Relations Office and curated by a journalist from Portal Bogotá. For suggestions, questions, or more information, visit Bogotá Te Escucha: https://bogota.gov.co/sdqs/
