Best Practices

General Operational Policies*

PROJECT PREPARATION, EVALUATION, AND APPROVAL

Purpose and Scope

To establish GENERAL GUIDELINES for the preparation, analysis, and approval of projects. The following guidelines are applicable to all the Bank's lending operations.

Basic Guidelines

Bank-financed PROJECTS SHALL:

• Contribute effectively to the economic and social development of the regional member countries.
  
• Be consistent with the principles set forth in the Agreement Establishing the Bank with regard to the use of Bank resources.
  
• Be technically, economically, and environmentally sound, financially secure, and take place in an adequate legal and institutional framework.
  
• Help to maintain the Bank's reputation as a financial agency in the international markets.
  

PROJECT OBJECTIVES. The goals of a project must be clearly established, realistic, and consistent with the country priorities and development strategies defined in the operations programming process.

PROJECT CYCLE. From the time a project is conceived and throughout its different stages (identification, preparation, analysis, negotiation, approval, and execution), the Bank examines the need for the project and its feasibility though technical, socioeconomic, financial, legal, and environmental analysis and ex ante evaluations; it examines the institutional capacity of the borrower and/or executing agency to attain the desired goals; it establishes the necessary actions and defines the policy measures required to process the operation; it arranges for a final agreement on the project with the country and submits it to the Bank's authorities for approval; and it oversees project execution and administers the operation.

Norms

The SPECIFIC GUIDELINES governing activities of the project cicle up through their approval, are set out in the Operations Processing Manual.

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Prevailing Reference Document: GP­97­1, September 1980.

 

* The operational policies of the Inter-American Development Bank are intended to provide operational guidance to staff in assisting the Bank's borrowing member countries. Over the course of the Bank's more than 40 years of operations, the approach to developing operational policies has taken various forms, ranging from the preparation of detailed guidelines to broad statements of principle and intent. Many policies have not been updated since they were originally issued, and a few reflect emphases and approaches of earlier years which have been superseded by specific mandates of the Bank's Governors, the most recent being the Eighth Replenishment mandates of 1994. In accordance with the Bank's information disclosure policy, the Bank is making all of its operational policies available to the public through the Public Information Center. Users please note that the Bank's operational policies are under a process of continuous review. This review process includes preparation of best practice papers summarizing experience at the Bank and other similar institutions, and sector strategy papers.

General Operational Policies Sectoral Operational Policies Information Disclosure Policy Procurement Policy