Investment loans

The Inter-American Development Bank provides loans for public and private investment projects in Latin America and the Caribbean.

• Loans for specific projects are designed to finance an investment project that is wholly defined at the time the Bank's loan is approved. These projects usually focus on one development sector or sub-sector. Examples may include an education reform program, an electricity distribution and transmission program, or a citizen security program.
• Loans for Multiple Works Programs are designed to finance groups of similar works that are physically independent of each other and whose feasibility does not depend on the implementation of other works projects.
• Global Credit Loans (sometimes also called “Multi-sector Credit Loans”) are granted to intermediary financial institutions (IFIs) or similar agencies in the borrowing countries to enable them to on-lend to end-borrowers (sub-borrowers) for the financing of multi-sector projects.
• Time-Slice Operations are loans in which the investment program for a sector or sub-sector is adjusted from time to time, within general criteria and global objectives that the Bank and the borrower agree upon in advance.
• Conditional Credit Lines (CCLIPs) are performance-based instruments that are available only to borrowers that have successfully implemented similar IDB-financed projects. To obtain a CCLIP, borrowers must demonstrate satisfactory results with previous projects as well as show that the executing agency hasn’t changed and that it has a solid performance track record.
• Performance Driven Loans (PDL) are investment loans that disburse once the project’s or program’s actual developmental results or outcomes are achieved, and the Bank has verified the expenditures incurred by the Borrower to reach the outcomes. Outcomes are the effects from using the specific products and services (or outputs) that result from a development intervention.
• Innovation Loans (ILs), which support the testing and piloting of new approaches and emphasize capacity-building and learning. They can help to: (a) demonstrate the potential of taking a specific approach to overcome a development constraint, (b) achieve consensus, (c) gather valuable institutional experience, or (d) boost institutional capacity prior to larger scale programs. Individual ILs can be for amounts up to $10 million.
• Multiphase Loans (MLs), which expand the Bank’s ability to provide continuous support for programs that require more time to achieve fruition. They aim to provide an overall goal and conceptual framework for phased and longer-term support of a far-reaching program, encompassing more than one project cycle, and to forge a sustained and systemic effort in a particular area, sector or group of interrelated sectors, by addressing pervasive development problems.
• Sector Facilities, which help support rapid and tangible action in specific sectors without the delays associated with a long preparation period. They aim to provide fast-track support to address problems of a sectoral or cross-sectoral nature. Emphasis is placed on carrying pre-defined low-cost activities, characterized by: (a) relatively high impact, (b) high sector relevance and urgency (c) less complex preparation; and (d) rapid execution. Concrete and sector specific issues are addressed. The Board has approved a total of $150 million for these facilities, as well as the establishment of six sector facilities for health, education, trade, institutional development, disaster prevention and transnational infrastructure.
• Project Preparation and Execution Facility (PROPEF), which amends the current Project Preparation Facility (PPF) to facilitate a more seamless transition from preparation to execution by financing additional project start-up activities. It also increases the amount available per project to $5 million.
• Sector Wide Approach (SWAp) is an approach by which all development partners, involved in a sector, collaborate to support a single government-led sector policy and expenditure program, adopting common approaches across the sector, and progressing towards relying on government procedures to disburse and account for all funds. A SWAp is not a lending instrument but rather an approach that can be supported by any of the Bank’s investment lending instruments.