IDB funds education reform in Argentina

The IDB has announced the approval of a $600 million loan to improve the quality of secondary education in Argentina and make it more accessible to low-income youth. The loan, the largest ever by the Bank in the education sector, focuses on achieving the goals of the Federal Education Act of 1993 and the Education Transfer Act of 1992, which shifted secondary education responsibilities from the central government to the provinces.

The IDB program is designed to increase the coverage of secondary education; reduce dropout rates; improve academic performance in language, mathematics and social and natural sciences; and make education spending more efficient.

See link at right for details on this and other recently approved IDB projects.

Mirna Liévano de Marques

New IDB external relations advisor

Mirna Liévano de Marques, of El Salvador, has been named the IDB’s external relations advisor.

In this position she directs a broad range of activities to explain the programs and policies of the Bank and to build a dialogue with key Bank constituencies.

Since 1994, Liévano has served as director of a business school in El Salvador, the Escuela Superior de Economía y Negocios. In addition, she was president of a consulting firm that advises public institutions and private companies on economic, social, environmental, financial, and technological subjects.

Prior to that she was president of the Board of Directors of the Salvadoran Social Investment Fund, and before that, headed El Salvador’s Ministry of Planning and Coordination of Economics and Social Development. In this latter capacity she served as governor to the World Bank and the IDB.

She has a master’s degree in economics from the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium, and a bachelor’s from José Simeón Cañas Central American University in El Salvador. Among her honors is the Chevalier de l'Ordre national du Mérite of the government of France.

Date posted: October 2001