In February 2011, NADB created the Community Assistance Program (CAP) to administer infrastructure grants funded from its retained earnings.  This webpage outlines the eligibility criteria, authorized uses, and procedures for accessing CAP grants.

Objective

The objective of the CAP program is to support the implementation of critical environmental infrastructure projects for sponsors with limited capacity to incur debt.  The program is designed to serve low-income communities in the U.S.-Mexico border region.

General Eligibility Criteria

CAP grants are available for public projects in all environmental sectors eligible for NADB financing, provided that they meet the following criteria:

• The project must be located in the U.S.-Mexico border region, defined as the area within 100 kilometers north and 300 kilometers south of the international boundary between the United States and Mexico.
  
  
• The project sponsor must have little capacity to incur debt.
  
  
• The project must benefit communities (i) in the United States with median household income (MHI) at or below the average of the MHI of U.S. communities in the border region or (ii) in Mexico with average household income at or below the average household income of Mexican communities in the border region.

Priority will be given to drinking water, wastewater and solid waste infrastructure. Projects that receive grants from the Border Environment Infrastructure Fund (BEIF) are NOT eligible for grants from the CAP.

General Financing Requirements

Projects selected to receive a CAP grant must comply with the following funding requirements:

• Projects must obtain certification from the Border Environment Cooperation Commission (BECC).  
  
  
• The project sponsor must contribute at least 10% of the total project cost in the form of cash. On a case-by-case basis, in-kind contributions such as land, equipment, or other tangible assets or cost components of a project may be considered towards fulfilling this contribution. 

Grant Amount and Uses

Projects may receive a CAP grant for up to US$500,000. The grant proceeds may be used for project construction and related costs, including final design, project management and supervision, as well as other project components, such as equipment.

Application and Prioritization Process

An initial call for CAP grant applications will be announced by NADB and BECC. Subsequent calls will be subject to funding availability.

Applicants will have a period of 90 days following publication of the notice to submit their applications. The call for applications will include a detailed list of the information to be submitted by the grant applicants. 

Once the applications have been received, NADB and BECC will review and prioritize the projects for certification and CAP funding.  Projects will be prioritized mainly based on the following factors:

1. Project sponsors with the greatest financial need will be given higher priority. Projects will be ranked based on the distribution of median (for U.S. communities) or average (for Mexican communities) household income of the beneficiary community.
   
   
2. Project sponsors with a high level of project readiness (i.e. status of project design and environmental clearance) will be given higher priority.

Funding Process

Following prioritization, BECC will initiate the certification process for the selected projects.  NADB will perform a financial analysis in order to determine each project’s financial needs, including debt capacity and the appropriate amount of CAP funding.

The period from Board certification and CAP funding approval to the initiation of project implementation shall not exceed nine (9) months. Projects that do not comply with this deadline will be subject to cancellation.

NADB’s procurement policies and procedures shall apply to all CAP projects, and supervision of project design, construction and follow-up will be consistent with existing NADB and BECC procedures.