IDB President Meets Governors of Non-Regional Member Countries in Madrid

• Meeting was first for new IDB President Ilan Goldfajn
• Spain announced a $2 million contribution to the IDB’s Amazon Initiative

Ilan Goldfajn, the new President of the Inter-American Development Bank, and the representatives from non-regional member countries met in Madrid, Spain, on February 27-28 to discuss the Bank's strategic priorities and Latin America and the Caribbean region’s outlook. This meeting took place in preparation to the Annual Meeting of the IDB and IDB Invest Board of Governors, which will be held in Panama on March 16-19.

Topics discussed during the two-day meeting included the vision and priorities for the region and the IDB, importance of increasing development effectiveness, potential ways to optimize the use of the Bank’s capital, strategies for enhancing IDB Invest and IDB Lab’s value proposition, the region’s economic outlook and the cross-cutting issues at the core of the institution’s agenda. Non-regional members are IDB shareholders from Europe and Asia.

IDB President Ilan Goldfajn shared his priorities and vision for the region and the Bank during his interventions. He emphasized the importance of positioning Latin America and the Caribbean as part of the solutions to shared global challenges such as food insecurity, climate change and energy crisis among others, while working to address the region's economic, social, and institutional crises. He has identified priority areas moving forward: tackling social issues, climate action, and the development of sustainable physical and digital infrastructure to support growth and regional integration.

President Goldfajn also underscored the central role of non-regional member countries in helping the IDB implement sustainable development projects in Latin America and the Caribbean. "To realize our vision for the IDB, it is essential to create opportunities for dialogue and collaboration with non-regional member countries”, he said. “We are eager to work together to ensure that the IDB is the most important multilateral development institution for Latin America and the Caribbean."

Nadia Calviño, First Vice-President of the Government of Spain, Minister for the Economy and Digital Transformation and IDB Governor, said: “Spain will continue to work closely with the IBD to support sustainable growth and an inclusive digital transformation in the Latin American and Caribbean region, focusing on small and medium enterprises. We will keep strengthening this relationship and put EU-Latin American and the Caribbean relations at the center of the Spanish presidency of the EU.”

In the meeting, Spain also announced a contribution of $2 million to the IDB’s Amazon Initiative, thus joining Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium and the Green Climate Fund (GCF).

New agreement with Museo del Prado

In addition, the meeting of non-regional member countries in Madrid led to the signing of a collaboration agreement between the IDB and Museo del Prado. The two institutions will jointly create a virtual course to train professionals from museums and cultural institutions in Latin America and the Caribbean to implement best practices in museum management and digital strategy planning.

Collaboration with non-regional member countries

Approximately 58% of the resources mobilized by the IDB, IDB Invest and IDB Lab in 2022 came from non-regional member countries in Europe and Asia.

These resources allowed the IDB to finance and implement projects in areas like policy reform, social protection, water and sanitation, decarbonization, climate action, energy transition, sustainable infrastructure, sustainable tourism, urban development, agribusiness, digitalization and the Amazon Initiative.

In 2022, contributions came from non-regional member countries through development agencies and ministries. These included Spain’s Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation (MINECO), Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), French Development Agency (AFD), Finland's Ministry for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade,  German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), German Ministry of Economy and Climate Action (BMWK) and KfW, Austria's Ministry of Finance (BMF), Israel's Ministry of Finance (MoF), Switzerland's State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), Norway's Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), the Netherlands' Ministry of Foreign Affairs (BZ), Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Korea's Ministry of Economy and Finance (MOEF).

Collaboration between the IDB and non-regional member countries also includes the private sector, academia and cultural institutions. The Bank maintains ongoing collaborations with companies, associations and institutions such as NEC, Samsung, Naver, Enel Group, Engie, Sacyr, BNP Paribas, Girindus Investments, Blue Like an Orange, Frankfurt Airport, Telefónica, Wayra, Banco Santander, BBVA, Fundación Mapfre, ONCE,  ICEX España Exportación e Inversiones (ICEX), Mouvement des entreprises de France (MEDEF), Seoul National University, Sophia University, Waseda University, London School of Economics and Political Science, IE University, among others.