Social Inclusion and the IDB

The Inter-American Development Bank has spear-headed efforts in the region to research and raise awareness on social exclusion and to seek new ways to promote social "inclusion" through technical assistance, training, and operations. The IDB Action Plan contains three core areas of activity:

I. Outreach and Awareness Raising: Social inclusion can only be addressed with a stronger knowledge base on the part of national governments and international institutions on the nature of the problem and the ways it can be addressed. The IDB strategy is to work at two levels: internal, improving awareness/knowledge within the IDB itself; and, external, linking the IDB work with the major multilateral and regional organizations and supporting awareness raising/knowledge development in the region.

Among the accomplishments in outreach have been:

The creation of a high-level working group within the IDB led by the IDB Vice President;

A technical staff working group (TWG) that involves all Bank departments;

Sponsorship of a major international conference attended by over 200 regional leaders (Towards a Shared Vision of Development: High Level Dialogue on Race, Ethnicity and Inclusion ? June 18th, 2001, IDB Headquarters);

Approval of a Bank plan to promote diversity among its own staff and the conduct of an internal IDB census on staff diversity (October 2001);

Internal (staff) training on social inclusion (TWG);

Active and high-level participation in the United Nations Conference in Durban, South Africa;

Participation in a working group on social inclusion -IAC- (e.g. World Bank, Inter-American Dialogue, Ford Foundation,Pan-American Health Organization); and,

Creation of a training course for afro-descendent leaders and training courses and civil society dialogues for leaders in the region.

II. Project Development. The Bank identified and targeted more than 10 new operations in social inclusion for approval in 2001. These targets were over and above the existing Pipeline which already included projects for indigenous peoples, women, and other groups. These operations were spread across the three regions (RE1, RE2, RE3) of the Bank and included both small loan and grant operations. The vast majority of these new projects were specifically directed at socially-excluded groups either as beneficiaries, participants, or as part of a regional development effort.

III. Research. Both awareness-raising and new project developmentss will be constrained without simultaneously advancing what is known about the size and characteristics of socially-excluded groups, how social exclusion is manifest, and what practices best address and promote social inclusion. The IDB Action Plan contains elements to advance further the research agenda and data collection on socially-excluded groups. Among the accomplishments in research in 2001 werethis year are: (i) four studies on the causes and consequences of social exclusion due to race or ethnic background in particular country cases; (ii) support for the inclusion of questions of race and ethnicity in household surveys in Peru and in Honduras; and, (iii) additional research papers/articles on social inclusion.