IDB Approves $400 million Loan to Strengthen the State's Prevention and Response to Organized Crime in Ecuador

WASHINGTON—The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has approved a $400 million loan to Ecuador to strengthen the country’s institutional capacity to prevent and tackle criminal violence and illicit financial flows. 

This programmatic policy-based loan addresses growing insecurity in a country where the homicide rate has risen from 7 to 39 per 100,000 inhabitants between 2020 and 2024, an increase of over 400%. The program lays out a comprehensive, cross-sector, and evidence-based response that includes new regulatory frameworks, channels for inter-institutional coordination, intervention strategies, and tools for tracing and controlling illicit assets.

The "Program for Institutional Strengthening to Prevent and Address Violence and Crime in Ecuador" aims to clamp down on criminal violence and illicit markets through structural reforms that prevent children and adolescents from being recruited by criminal groups, modernize the police, combat money laundering and recover illicit assets, and reduce illegal mining. 

The IDB-backed program will directly benefit over five million children and adolescents, 641,000 residents of the Ecuadorian Amazon, students at 1,785 schools with high recruitment risks, and 5.88 million inhabitants of 23 vulnerable cantons. It is expected to reduce the average homicide rate in these cantons from 73.9 to 66.6 per 100,000 inhabitants by 2027, and increase perceived safety in school communities by 10 percent.

The plan also includes specific measures to protect migrant children and adolescents, including a protocol to stop migrant smuggling and a procedure allowing unaccompanied minors to obtain legal immigration status.

This initiative is part of the IDB’s "Alliance for Security, Justice, and Development" strategy to enhance regional coordination to combat organized crime. 

Important program initiatives include a national strategy to prevent children and adolescents from being recruited to criminal groups, a new territory- and evidence-based service model for the police, a new anti-money laundering law that meets Financial Action Task Force standards, and a National Mining Sector Integrity Committee to address illegal mining. The operation will also support innovations such as the INTERPOL Silver Notice for recovering illicit assets abroad and the REBEFICS registry for identifying beneficial owners behind shell companies used to launder assets.

The program will be executed by Ecuador's Ministry of Economy and Finance, in coordination with key institutions in the security, justice, education, mining, and finance sectors. It includes rigorous monitoring and evaluation structures, as well as technical assistance to ensure the sustainability of the reforms.

By approving this loan, the IDB underscores its commitment to institutional strengthening, citizen security, and sustainable development in Latin America and the Caribbean.