In February 2005, the Blue Ribbon Panel put forth a series of recommendations for the IDB on how to better integrate sustainable development into its financing operations and other areas of its activities. This group of high-level international experts reconvened at Bank headquarters on July 27, 2006 to assess the progress made and challenges encountered in the Bank’s work to enhance its sustainability performance.
“This Panel’s recommendations are extremely important because they lay out the key factors that will help transform the IDB into a leader in promoting environmental and social sustainability throughout the region,” said IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno while greeting the Panel members.
Overall, the Panel was pleased with the progress made by the IDB, especially regarding the improved harmonization of Bank policies with international sustainability standards and the recent creation of the Environment and Safeguards Compliance and Indigenous Peoples Policies.
While lauding the important strides taken by the IDB thus far, Panel Chairman Bruce Babbitt, former U.S. secretary of the Interior and governor of Arizona, also stressed that there is much left to be done in embedding environmental and social issues into the “bloodstream, bone and marrow of the Bank.” He also noted that the Bank now faces the very complex task of implementing its new Environment and Indigenous Peoples Policies, but can use this challenge as an opportunity to become a leader in environmental and social policy implementation.