Left to right: Ingrid Glad, temporary alternate governor, Norway; Peter Piot, executive director, Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS); Enrique V. Iglesias, president, IDB; Octavio Azevedo Mercadante, executive secretary, Ministry of Health, Brazil; José Serra, Senator, Brazil. (Photo by J. Oliveira)

International experts and officials from the region examined the challenges and possible responses to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Latin America and the Caribbean at a seminar today at the IDB’s Annual Meeting in Fortaleza.

Speaking at the opening of the seminar were IDB President Enrique V. Iglesias, Peter Piot, executive director of the United Nations Program Against HIV/AIDS; and Senator José Serra, former Brazilian health minister. Also participating on the inaugural panel were Ingrid Glad, Norway’s temporary alternative governor for the IDB, and Octavio Azevedo Mercadante, executive secretary of Brazil’s Ministry of Health.

At the close of 2001, UNAIDS estimated that some 1.8 million people in the region are living with HIV/AIDS, which represents an increase of 13 percent over the estimates of the previous year, said Iglesias. Moreover, between 14 and 45 percent of the persons infected are women, he added. “A truly alarming trend is the increase in the number of cases in youth,” he said.

“Unfortunately, the history of AIDS in the past 20 years has shown that the seriousness of the epidemic, and its potential impact, have not resulted in the appropriate responses,” said Iglesias. “This lack of action has had serious consequences for society: it has enabled the disease to propagate itself, has limited the ability of people to seek treatment, and it has restricted the development of adequate prevention and treatment programs.”

Iglesias noted the IDB’s commitment to promote discussion with governments, civil society, and the networks of persons who live with HIV/AIDS.

“Two decades of AIDS have made it clear that this epidemic single-handedly has the potential to eradicate all the development gains of the past 50 years,” said UNAIDS Peter Piot. “The Bank’s intensification of its work in the regional response to HIV/AIDS is therefore especially welcome.”

“The regional banks are able to translate their long-term commitment to regional development into a broad and sustained support for efforts against AIDS,” continued Piot. “Integrating a comprehensive AIDS response into every program and activity of the Bank will be an effort repaid a hundred-fold.”

Strategies for meeting the higher education challenge

Latin America’s university population will undergo a massive expansion in the next decades as new waves of students complete secondary school and enroll in higher education, according to specialists who participated today in a seminar organized by the IDB.

The session, which gathered together researchers, academics and public officials, was inaugurated by Brazil’s Education Minister Paulo Renato Souza and the manager of the IDB’s Sustainable Development Department, Carlos M. Jarque. The conference was closed by the secretary of higher education in Brazil, Francisco César de Sá Barreto, and by IDB President Enrique V. Iglesias.

Souza noted that enrollment in Brazilian universities has grown 62 percent in the past seven years, raising concerns about improving the quality of higher education while dealing with this expansion. One policy has been for the government to encourage professors to obtain masters degrees and doctorates, he said.

“Society needs to establish quality standards for higher education. Society must establish evaluation systems for higher education not only for the process, but for the results,” Souza said.

The minister also noted the need to strengthen the ties between the universities and other institutions of higher education with the productive sector, in order to enable countries to respond to the needs of a world in constant change.

The region already registered an explosive increase in its university population and among students in technical institutes and other higher education institutions at the end of the last century. In three decades the number of students enrolled increased six times to 9.5 million in 2000 compared with 1.6 million in 1970.

While the increase in demand for higher education has provoked a proliferation of courses and programs and educational institutions, both public and private, the rate of expansion of enrollment and the expectations of Latin American youth are a daunting challenge to the region.

IDB president salutes International Women’s Day

IDB President Enrique V. Iglesias today saluted International Women’s Day in a statement delivered from Fortaleza, site of the IDB’s Annual meeting.

“Women are the central protagonists of growth in Latin America and the Caribbean. We find them active in the home, in the community, in political leadership, in schools, in production and in commerce,” Iglesias said. “Sixty percent of the food production in the region is a result of the work of women, and in many countries they account for up to 80 percent of the microenterprises. Nevertheless, there are still barriers that impede the development of their full potential.”

“Upon the dismantling of gender barriers, the IDB helps women take their just place as protagonists in the advance of countries,” he added. “I am proud of the continued increase in the number of projects financed by the Bank that assure women’s participation and promote women’s leadership. One cannot think about economic and social transformation without understanding the central role that women play,” Iglesias said.

In 1987 the Bank established its Women in Development policy to support member countries in the process of integrating women into regional growth through IDB lending and technical cooperation programs.

IDB and country officials sign loan documents

The IDB Annual Meeting is the site for ceremonies to sign loans previously approved by the Bank’s Board of Executive Directors. View press releases on the Bank’s Annual Meeting homepage.