The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has launched the 2012 Call for Proposals of the Initiative for the Promotion of Regional Public Goods in Latin America and the Caribbean. Proposals will be accepted until March 29th, 2012.
In 2012, the Initiative will provide up to US$5 million in grants to finance proposals that stimulate regional cooperation among the IDB´s borrowing member countries to collectively address challenges or seize new opportunities for development.
An important selection criterion will be the alignment of proposals with the strategic priorities of the IDB’s New Institutional Strategy, which was approved as part of the Bank’s Ninth General Capital Increase (GCI-9). Support for regional and global integration and cooperation is one of the pillars of this new strategy.
Currently, the portfolio of the RPG Initiative includes 82 projects with a total investment of $67.5 million. In many instances, the Initiative has served as an incubator of innovative ideas that demonstrate how regional cooperation can produce measurable benefits.
Among them is the Single-Based Social Security System that allows migrant workers in the Mercosur to accumulate pension benefits across borders. Another example is the Central American Protocol for Procurement and Quality Control of Medicines. This project supports the health ministries of the Central American countries, Belize and the Dominican Republic in procuring selected pharmaceuticals as a group, resulting in lower prices and drugs that comply with region-wide quality standards. More examples of high impact RPG projects can be found in Regional Public Goods: An Innovative Approach to South-South Cooperation.
All proposals must be presented in accordance with the Call for Proposals Guidelines and must be submitted through the Online Application before 12:00 am (midnight) US Eastern Standard Time on March 29, 2012. Prior to submissions interested institutions need to register.