Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) celebrates 2011 the Year for People of African Descent through a series of initiatives to promote development in African descendant communities throughout Latin America. The initiatives include operations, research, training, and publications, which will shape the IDB’s work in support of African descendant communities beyond 2011.

African descendants in Latin America represent approximately one-third of the population and have made a significant contribution to the culture and history of their nations. Although often overlook in the past, the role and importance of these communities is rising in part because promoting development for African descendants is a key component to closing economic and social gaps throughout the region.

In order to foster greater recognition of the African presence in the world, the UN has declared 2011 as the International Year for People of African Descent to strengthen national actions and international cooperation to promote the participation of African descendants in the economic, social, political, and cultural lives of their nations.

The IDB launched the celebration of the year with a special event featuring Sheila S. Walker Ph.D., a renowned international scholar on the global African Diaspora with a presentation of her acclaimed film “Scattered Africa: Faces and Voices of the African Diaspora” at the IDB Headquarters on February 23.

In continuance of the commemoration of the year, the IDB will carry out the initiatives to create more awareness and greater understanding of the development needs and concerns of the African descendant communities in the region. They include a groundbreaking project to improve data collection on African descendant populations in national censuses and household surveys; expand and evaluate a program that uses music as a means to improve social outcomes for African descendant youth; promote dialogues with the civil society; and host a meeting of African descendant women political leaders to explore the representation of women’s needs in development programs.