Madrigal, Róger
Róger Madrigal is Center Director and Senior Research Fellow at EfD-CA. He is an environmental economist and received his Ph.D. from the University of Freiburg in Germany. He is the academic coordinator of the MSc Program in Economics, Development, and Climate Change at the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE). He is also the director of the Latin American Chair on Environmental Decisions for Global Change (CLADA), at CATIE.
Dr. Madrigal is an accomplished environmental economist with two decades of experience driving impactful projects and pioneering applied research initiatives, mainly across Latin America. My primary focus revolves around the domains of rural water community systems, community-based approaches for natural resource management, sustainable consumption, and the formulation and execution of financial mechanisms to promote watershed conservation. In addition, he has delved into ocean economy issues.
Research interests
- Water economics
- Climate change adaptation
- Design of policy instruments
- Institutional economics
- Common-pool resources management
- Economic valuation of ecosystem services
- Marine economics
Mentoring
Dr Madrigal has been the primary advisor for 30 MSc students at CATIE and the Universidad de Costa Rica. He is also a member of students' advisory committees at Wageningen University, the University of Vermont, and Osnabrück University.
Grant and consultancy
Madrigal has led different consultancies for the Inter-America Development Bank (IADB), the World Bank (WB), the Agence Française de Développement (AFD), the International Development Research Center (IDRC), the Central American Bank of Economic Integration (CABEI), Global Green Growth Initiative (GGGI), the CARSI-Embassy of the United States of America, and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), among others.
Selected grants and consultancies include:
- Feasibility assessment of a Water Fund in the Trifinio region (El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala) IADB.
- The economics of Marine Spatial Planning. The World Bank.
- Impact evaluation of PES on water resources in Costa Rica. AFD.
- Accountability, use of technology, and citizen participation for improving rural water scarcity and affordability in the Global South: A network of observatories and policy studies. SIDA through EfD Initiative.
- Social and ecological factors affecting the performance of community-based water organizations (CWOs) in Central America. SIDA through EfD Initiative.
- Design of Payments for Ecosystem Services program in Kingston, Jamaica. The main objective is to protect water resources and reduce the effect of landslides through investments in green infrastructure. IADB.
- Feasibility of irrigation and human water infrastructure project for the Tempisque Watershed (PAACUME). Costa Rica. CABEI.
- Water, communities, and climate change (AC3). Nicaragua, Guatemala y Costa Rica. IDRC.
Policy engagement
Madrigal has fostered successful collaboration with national and municipal governments, grassroots organizations, esteemed international agencies, and multilateral banks. Some examples in this regard included long-term collaborations with governmental entities in Costa Rica, such as FONAFIFO (in charge of the PES program), SINAC (responsible for Conservation Areas), and AyA (water provider and regulator), among others. We have nurtured new relationships with governmental entities in Central America, such as those working in watershed management in the Trifinio Region (a transboundary watershed in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras), and those related to irrigation water in Nicaragua.
Awards
He received the German Academic Exchange Program (DAAD) fellowship, the Norman Borlaug Fellowship, the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) Fellowship, and the Gothenburg University and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency fellowship.
