Impacting Latin America and the Caribbean through Partnerships

The Haitian Ministry of Education, the Fonds d’Assistance Economique et Sociale (FAES) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) attend the opening of the Ecole Nationale de Puilboreau.

Interview with His Excellency Joel Desrosiers Jean Pierre, Haitian Minister of Education, about the role of education in rebuilding a better Haiti.

In late October, the IDB, FAES and the Haitian Ministry of Education attended the opening of the National School of Puilborreau, in the mountainous northern region of Haiti. While attending the opening of the 650-student primary school, H.E. Jean-Pierre said there is not just a need for more public schools now but more schools in general. Read the IDB's interview with Haiti's Minister of Education, Joel Desrosiers Jean Pierre.

The IDB is working with Haiti's Ministry of Education and National Education Commission to prepare a major reform of the Haitian education system. The five-year plan, which would require around $4.2 billion in funding from donors, is aimed at expanding tuition-free education services in Haiti.

IADB invites all parties interested in joining the IDB and the Government of Haiti on rebuilding the education system in Haiti to contact us. There are many opportunities to build schools similar to the one that was just inaugurated that go from Pre-K to ninth grade and that will attend between 650 to 1200 students. The schools are hurricane and earthquake resistant.

 

IDB in the News

Galvanizing collaboration in trade and investment with China at the 4th China-LAC Business Summit

On October 21-22, the IDB and the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) organized the China-LAC Summit in Chengdu, China, in close collaboration with the People’s Bank of China and the Sichuan Provincial Government.The summit was attended by over 1,200 people, and highlighted the immense amount of progress that has been achieved since China joined the IDBover a year ago, while fostering dialogue to scale up initiatives and increase partnership opportunities. Read about the Grand Opening of the 4th China-Lac Business Summit

Over the past decade China has become a major commercial partner for many countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. Trade between this region and China jumped 13-fold since 1995, from $8.4 billion to $110 billion in 2007. Learn more

Read article "Por fin llegan las inversiones chinas " in La Nacion

 

The 2010 Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) IDB commits to Education in Haiti, Road Safety, Sports for Development and IDEAS 2011

At this year’s Annual CGI Meeting, the IDB joined government officials, business leaders, and nonprofit directors from all over the world to collaborate and  strengthen the impact of development. The IDB devised and signed four new commitments to action, including Education in Haiti, Road Safety, Sports for Development and IDEAS, an innovative energy contest. 

The IDB committed to Education in Haiti, by setting up a partnership platform that will facilitate the coordination and harmonization of education efforts with the public and private sector, as well as track the impact and contribution of each partner’s actions have to the overall expected outcomes.

President Bill Clinton introduced and praised IDB President Moreno for the “life saving commitment” to Road Safety. The IDB joined the FIA Foundation to work towards safer roads in the LAC region, in line with the Decade of Action for Road Safety, declared by the United Nations.

In Sports for Development the IDB convened partners such as Trilogy International, Brightstar Corporation, FIFA, streetfootballworld and othersto harness the power of sports as a vehicle for social change, both within CGI and in a closed plenary session.

With IDEAS 2011, the IDB aims to increase the competitive advantages and opportunities for growth in Latin American and Caribbean by financing pioneering initiatives that promote projects in the fields of renewable energy, energy efficiency and energy access in LAC.

 

Securing Support for Haiti: Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP)

At the last Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP) Steering Committee meeting, both the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the World Bank (WB) were designated as Supervising Entities for the grant to Haiti (US$ 35 million), with an additional allocation of up to 5%.

The IDB has identified Agriculture as one of the key sectors for its long-term support to Haiti’s recovery. Half of Haiti’s population depends on agriculture for a living, making it a critical component for reconstruction and sustainability. Over the next years the IDB will invest $200 million in this sector, building on past projects involving irrigation, watershed management and crop pest and disease control, as well as modernizing Haiti’s land titling and registration system.

 

Microsoft and the IDB strengthen their relationship by launching two new initiatives

• Microsoft, IDB’s Multilateral Investment Fund (FOMIN) and Fundacion SES collaborate to increase youth employment opportunities for youth in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Mexico, Paraguay, and Uruguay through an integrated intervention model that combines educational and vocational development with labor demand in the information and communication technology market, using labor intermediation and ongoing monitoring strategies. Read more about FOMIN's projects.
• Microsoft, the IDB and Infusion launch a new Haiti communications platform which will be an open source application and will seek to become a powerful tool of transparency, accountability and effectiveness supporting the recovery efforts. Additionally, it will connect different ministries, donor agencies and project managers on the ground through a single-web-based project management platform. The project has been designed in close collaboration with the Government of Haiti to secure ownership and long term sustainability. Read more.

 

IDB’s BeyondBanking contest generates high level of interest and participation

The IDB’s Financial Markets Division in the Structured and Corporate Finance Department (SCF/FMK) is expanding beyondBanking, an innovative program that seeks to work with financial intermediaries (FIs) in Latin America and the Caribbean to offer financing and technical assistance that promote sustainable social, environmental and governance practices. Through its strategic pillars, beyondBanking recognizes the catalytic role that FIs play to promote large-scale economic growth and corporate change, contributing to the Bank of the Future – a bank business model that balances financial with social returns in order to foster an inclusive, environmentally-friendly, transparent and commercially-viable financial sector. As part of this program, the first call for proposals recently took place, receiving high-levels of public interest and participation. FIs in the region submitted more than 100 proposals to the 9 award categories.

An independent Committee of Experts reviewed all submissions and selected the three best in each category. The general public is now voting on the finalists. The public can vote until December 15 on the following website: www.iadb.org/premiosbeyondbanking.

Awards will be distributed at the next IDB Socially Responsible Business Conference in Asunción, Paraguay in April 2011.

 

European Commission (EC) grants to co-finance loans from IDB and other financial institutions

The European Commission (EC) formally launched the Latin American Investment Facility (LAIF), a new initiative that seeks to leverage its grant resources by co-financing development projects financed by European and Latin American Financial Institutions.

Although modeled on the similar “Neighborhood Investment Facility” for the Mediterranean and Eastern Europe, LAIF is innovative insofar as it includes the regional Latin American Financial Institutions, such as the IDB as full partners and members of its Financial Institutions Group. The requirement is that it be a regional multilateral development bank, and that it has among its members some European states. The pipeline currently includes six projects in which the IDB is participating, to be co-financed by the EIB, AECID, AFD and Nordic Investment Fund (part of the Nordic Investment Bank Group). Learn more.