I. Background
In December of 1999, the Regional Policy Dialogue was created as an initiative of the Inter-American Development Bank's Board of Directors with the aim of establishing a space for the expansion and exploration of dialogue between borrowing member countries. The Bank envisioned the Regional Policy Dialogue as a mechanism that would contribute to the exchange of experiences between countries, prepare them to face the vast challenges of globalization, and generate processes for regional cooperation.
The Bank identified seven areas that have been considered in the initial phase of the Dialogue:
1) trade and integration;
2) poverty reduction and social protection;
3) education and training of human resources;
4) macroeconomic and financial policies;
5) management and transparency of public policy;
6) management of natural disasters;
7) environment;
8) science, Technology and innovation
II. Objectives
The objective of the Dialogue is the creation of a forum (Network) on each of the areas identified by the Bank, in which the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean can share experiences, learn about practices outside the region, and explore opportunities for regional cooperation in areas that are critical for their participation in an increasingly globalized economy. Specifically, the Dialogue aims at:
- promoting the exchange of information about policies and best practices, at both the intra and extra-regional level;
- facilitating regional cooperation;
- supporting regional integration processes;
- providing synergies arising out of the Bank´s activities at the national and regional level; and
- giving direction to the Bank´s regional technical cooperation.
III. Advances and Achievements of the Networks
According to the assessments carried out at the end of each meeting, the majority of the participants feel that the Dialogue is a unique instrument offering the opportunity for a profound exchange of ideas, information, experiences and best practices among countries in a more confidential atmosphere than that of most international meetings.
In all of the networks, the meetings have, to a great extent, satisfied the expectations of a significant portion of the participants. Moreover, on average, the participants gave very high ratings to the organization of the meetings. Similar results were given in terms of the quality and applicability of the Dialogue's studies and presentations.
IV. Expansion of Knowledge and Analysis
The networks are currently focusing on the analysis and discussion of subtopics that have been prioritized by members as important from the vantage point of resolving actual or potential challenges. To this end, the Dialogue has advanced significantly in imparting knowledge regarding regional and extra-regional best practices to all of its members.
IV. Additional Impact of the Networks
In addition to the tremendous importance of the topics discussed during meetings, the Dialogue promotes activities and communication between meetings, produces high-quality studies and gathers and disseminates best practices to its members. In terms of strengthening the capacities of the borrowing member countries to solve problems and outline successful policies, the above functions illustrate that, through the Dialogue's activities, the Bank has created an exemplary means of generating sub-regional cooperation processes, regional technical cooperation operations and projects for the creation of regional public goods. | 
