- A more pragmatic, results-oriented approach is reshaping regional cooperation in Latin America and the Caribbean, drawing on lessons from earlier integration efforts that did not always meet expectations.
- At the center of this shift, initiatives such as Amazonia Forever, América en el Centro, ONE Caribbean, and South Connection — developed by the IDB with participating countries — turn shared challenges into coordinated priorities and concrete regional action.
- Through these platforms, Latin American and Caribbean countries can scale solutions, mobilize investment, and strengthen their collective voice as a global actor.
Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries have long pursued regional economic integration to unlock scale, pool resources, and expand trade and investment. These efforts have delivered notable gains. However, rigid frameworks, overly broad mandates, and misalignments among nations have often limited implementation and diluted impact, gradually eroding momentum.
Today, regional cooperation is entering a new phase. In a more fragmented global economy marked by heightened trade, technological, and resilience challenges, LAC countries are adopting more pragmatic, flexible, and results-driven approaches to cooperation, supported by the IDB.
These new approaches draw on past lessons but focus squarely on delivering concrete, measurable benefits to participating countries, while advancing solutions to global challenges and amplifying LAC’s collective voice on the international stage.
The pursuit of greater collaboration across economic, political, and social dimensions, and beyond, has been a constant in Latin America and the Caribbean. From infrastructure projects that shorten distances to regulatory initiatives that expand markets, from electricity interconnection for improved energy security to shared efforts for disease eradication, cooperation among the region’s countries has delivered important achievements. Yet alongside success, integration fatigue settled, fueled by sometimes unmet expectations and weak implementation, even as many major common problems continued to exceed the capacity of any single country. What, then, is changing today?
Amid a more complex and uncertain global context, low growth scenarios, and tighter fiscal and structural constraints, countries across the region are revisiting cooperation with a clearer focus on implementation and results. Integration is being rethought as a tool for joint problem-solving and shared opportunities.
The Inter-American Development Bank works with countries of the region to advance focused models of cooperation. Drawing on geographic proximity and organized around shared objectives, these efforts seek to catalyze collaboration around key priorities, with measurable outcomes and the active participation of multiple stakeholders.
It is in this spirit that four country-driven flagship programs supported by the IDB have taken shape: Amazonia Forever, América en el Centro, ONE Caribbean, and South Connection. Taken together, they share several defining features that reflect a new way of organizing regional cooperation.
These programs are organized as structured frameworks for joint action, mandated by governments and elaborated by the IDB under their guidance. They do not seek to bring the entire region under one single umbrella, nor are they merely a collection of ad hoc national projects. Instead, they serve as focused platforms to catalyze finance, mobilize investment, enhance technical assistance, and deepen knowledge in support of their goals.
Cooperation under these programs is functional in nature. Each initiative translates shared regional challenges into a limited set of priorities and operational pillars, reflecting country demand, geographic development needs, and integration gaps. For example, as improved regional connectivity is central to strengthened competitiveness and growth in South America, priorities under South Connection are shaped around physical and digital infrastructure, logistics and trade facilitation, and regulatory convergence.
América en el Centro, on the other hand, is about enhancing productivity and trade integration, fostering resilience, and enhancing opportunities for the youth with a view to building a more integrated and productive Central America.
All countries within the geographic scope of an initiative may join. Amazonia Forever, for example, is open to countries in the Amazon region that aim to expand economic opportunity while enhancing resilience and sustainability, but participation in specific projects is interest-driven: a border crossing project will naturally be limited to neighboring states.
All these programs may also encompass national projects where clear regional spillovers exist, such as infrastructure that enhances connectivity or initiatives that can be replicated in other countries. Governance remains streamlined: initiatives operate under the IDB’s regular institutional norms and policies, without additional decision-making structures. In a context of limited access to affordable development financing, this pragmatic design is reinforced by the use of innovative finance instruments, including guarantees, debt swaps, and parametric insurance.
While anchored at the IDB, the regional programs mobilize collective action across sectors, with a particular emphasis on the private sector. For instance, under ONE Caribbean, a coordination mechanism helps to prepare and bring viable private sector projects to the market. Engagement with regional or multilateral institutions further strengthens implementation. For example, to unlock critical investments into renewable energy, ONE Caribbean has engaged regional bodies, power utilities, and ministries to develop a roadmap for harmonization of energy standards.
Finally, each initiative is explicitly outcome-oriented, with clearly defined objectives and measurable indicators that enable countries and partners to track progress and adjust course as needed. For example, under América en el Centro, a $130 million project to fast-track border clearance for certified operators, strengthen digital cargo traceability, and expand logistics services across the Pacific Corridor will transform Central America’s main cargo route into a fully integrated and competitive logistics system, generating annual economic gains up to $700 million.
Amazonia Forever, América en el Centro, ONE Caribbean, and South Connection are all government-led initiatives grounded in shared objectives and priorities. Broad national ownership, including by other stakeholders, is critical for success. So is the IDB’s role in helping countries articulate aspirations, identify areas of commonality, secure effective implementation, and achieve sustainability over time.
The IDB developed each of the four regional platforms to deliver short-term actions within a long-term development vision. To support this effort, the IDB deploys dedicated teams to coordinate and monitor each initiative, while convening governments and other actors, including cities, development banks, and private firms, to facilitate agreements, build partnerships, and maximize impact. It also serves as a knowledge hub, informing policy dialogue and project design through evidence-based analysis and collaboration with regional and multilateral partners.
The IDB also plays a catalytic role in advancing regional initiatives by shaping pipelines, aligning incentives, and mobilizing financing at scale. Through its financial instruments and convening power, the IDB structures bankable projects, deploys capital strategically, and mitigates risks to crowd in private and concessional resources, in coordination with IDB Invest and IDB Lab, the group’s private sector arms. By anchoring projects in strong technical foundations and regional priorities, it helps translate shared commitments into scalable, solid outcomes with potential for replication and sustained impact across countries.
The IDB ensures that these regional initiatives are aligned with international standards and global best practices, leveraging partnerships with institutions such as the World Bank, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and other multilateral and regional organizations to connect countries from Latin America and the Caribbean with global markets, knowledge, and innovation.
But the value of renewed regional cooperation goes beyond alignment. By acting collectively, countries from the region can amplify their voice in global forums, shape international agendas on issues such as climate resilience, biodiversity, trade facilitation, and food security, and engage more effectively in global initiatives. In this sense, pragmatic regional cooperation becomes not only a tool for growth and development, but also a platform for global action and strategic positioning in an increasingly fragmented world.