DEBT RELIEF FOR BOLIVIA
Bolivia has become the first country in Latin America to benefit from a debt relief program that will save it $450 million over the next five years. The program includes $155 million from the IDB, $54 million from the World Bank, $29 million from the International Monetary Fund, $39 million from the Andean Development Corporation and $14 million from other creditors.
A FIRST IN PUBLIC HEALTH
Two Argentine economists have won the first José Luis Bobadilla award for health research and innovation in health policy. Silvia Montoya and Manuel Willington, both of the Institute for Studies of the Argentine and Latin American Reality, were honored for their paper "Financing of Public Hospitals: Analysis of the Alternatives for Argentina." The annual award was established at the initiative of the IDB, the Mexican Health Foundation, the Pan American Health Organization and the World Bank. Bobadilla was an internationally recognized public health specialist who died in a plane crash in 1996 while on an IDB misson.
ACCORD SETTLES CONTESTED BORDER
Peru and Ecuador signed an agreement in Brasilia on October 16 to put an end to a long-running and at times bloody border dispute. In hailing the pact, IDB President Enrique V. Iglesias offered to make available $500 million to finance programs in the border area as well as to form a consultative group to receive funds for this purpose.
A HIT LIST FOR DAMS
A global commission will study 150 large dams in at least 10 major river basins in a step towards establishing guidelines and criteria for future dam schemes. The Capetown, South Africa-based World Commission on Dams aims to help reduce conflicts between builders of dams and the groups concerned about the effects of dams on the environment and local people.
COMMERCE DATA ON DISC
Firms looking for business in Central America will be able to get questions answered from a CD-Rom produced by the Central American Economic Integration Secretariat. The information, which will include trade flows, commercial requirements and principal commercial partners, was obtained from several institutions, including the IDB.