More than a bank: Rethinking the IADB

Second of two parts. Read the first here.

As the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) enters its seventh decade, with a new president to be chosen later this year, Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) and the world are facing a new set of challenges that make it necessary to rethink the bank’s mission, operations, and structure.

Though LAC falls on average into the upper middle-income category of developing regions, it lags more developed countries, with significant gaps in human capital (particularly education), social inclusion and equity, science and technology, infrastructure, and institutional quality of democratic governance. Thus it seems obvious that the IADB must continue to support the borrowing member countries in their efforts to close these gaps. This task can be accomplished via individual projects within the framework of the country-focused programming that is the bank’s main source of income. It is a demand-driven exercise and must remain so.

Image: The flag of the Inter-American Development Bank