Inter-American Development Bank President Enrique V. Iglesias and the director of the Swedish International Development Agency’s Latin American Department, Eivor Halkjaer, on thursday signed a framework agreement designed to expedite Swedish donations to projects, programs and other activities supported by the IDB.
The framework agreement sets the rules for cooperation between Sweden and the Bank in joint and parallel cofinancing, the management of trust funds and agreements on debt servicing.
Swedish donations will be devoted mostly to projects that benefit the poor in the IDB’s borrowing member countries, in such areas as health, education, sanitation, infrastructure, the environment, the strengthening of democracy and good governance, violence prevention, human rights promotion and women’s participation in the development process.
The IDB and Sweden have a long and productive history of cooperation. The Bank manages five Swedish trust funds, including the Swedish Fund for Consulting Services, one of the largest and most active funds. So far, the Swedish funds have supported 129 operations with a total $23.6 million.
Sida and the IDB have already cofinanced three projects for a total $16.9 million: one to improve basic education in Paraguay, another one to support Bolivia’s education reform and a third one to foster forest conservation in Nicaragua.
In May Sweden hosted a meeting of the IDB-chaired Consultative Group for the Reconstruction and Transformation of Central America, an international initiative that raised over $9 billion in pledges to aid countries ravaged by Hurricane Mitch in 1998.