The Sustainable Agriculture, Food and Environment (SAFE) Platform is an alliance initiated by the Multilateral Investment Fund, coordinated by Hivos, and co-founded by companies, donors, and NGOs that share a common vision: improving business processes, promoting sustainable agriculture, and including smallholder farmers in coffee and cocoa value chains. Partners include: Catholic Relief Services, Coalition for Coffee Communities, Ecom Trading, Farmer Brothers, Grameen Foundation, Hanns R. Neumann Stiftung, Hivos, Keurig Mountain Coffee, Rainforest Alliance, Root Capital, S & D Coffee & Tea, Solidaridad, Starbucks, Sustainability Commodity Assistance Network (SCAN), and the Committee on Sustainability Assessment (COSA).

Google for Education and the IDB joined forces in 2017 to integrate technology-intensive activities into IDB-financed projects. The partners are working to bring Google’s G Suite for Education and laptops into classrooms to improve classroom dynamics, increase access to education, and deepen engagement between teachers and students.

Following the 2010 earthquake, the IDB and its partners rallied to Haiti’s aid. Partners channeled US$218 million in co-financing and US$30 million in technical cooperation operations to support projects related to education, infrastructure, institutional strengthening, and more. Partners in Haiti have included: 3M, CARE, Catholic Relief Services, Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, Clinton Foundation, Federación Nacional de Cafeteros de Colombia, Finn Church Aid, First Citizens Bank Trinidad & Tobago, Food for the Poor Inc., Fundación Pies Descalzos, Fundación Social, Habitat for Humanity, Happy Hearts Fund, International Olympic Committee, MasterCard, McKinsey & Company, Microsoft, Nestlé, PepsiCo Foundation, The Coca-Cola Company, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and World Central Kitchen.

In 2016, the IDB, its Multilateral Investment Fund, and Unilever set out to reach vulnerable women in LAC. Building on the Shakti inclusive distribution model used in India, which empowered 70,000 women through specialized training and support from on-the-ground partners, the collaboration set out to scale this approach in El Salvador and Guatemala. The project is helping 2,000 women create stable incomes through the door-to-door selling of consumer brand products. It is partially supported by the Government of Japan through the IDB-managed Japan Special Fund for Poverty Reduction.

In 2017, the IDB and Danone teamed up to develop business solutions to boost economic growth. The partnership is harnessing Danone’s value chain to develop inclusive development initiatives and has pledged to co-finance more than US$6 million in grants over the next few years. In its initial phase, the partners will strengthen and scale projects currently being implemented by the Danone Ecosystem Fund and the Livelihoods Funds, while empowering local communities and protecting the environment.

The New Employment Opportunities for Youth (NEO) partnership is working to improve employment prospects for 1 million vulnerable youth in LAC, at least half of them female. NEO brings together businesses, governments, youth job service providers, and youth themselves to design employability and job placement strategies. The initiative is supported by the International Youth Foundation and partners Arcos Dorados, Brazilian Industrial Social Service (SESI), Caterpillar Foundation, CEMEX, Fondation Forge, Microsoft, and Walmart.

The Transparency Fund combines resources from the Governments of Canada, Italy, Norway, and Sweden, as well as MasterCard, to help LAC countries develop transparency and anti-corruption policies and tools. Since its launch in 2007, this IDB-managed fund has provided technical assistance grants to more than 50 projects worth over $18 million, benefiting 25 countries.

Since 2012 the alliance between the IDB and Telefónica has delivered progress across areas including ICTs, microfinance, education, big data, and small business growth. In 2017, the partners renewed their collaboration for another three years, focusing on projects along six courses of action: big data analysis and applications to public interest solutions; digital economy; entrepreneurial support; smart cities; Internet accessibility and regulatory policies; and initiatives in the areas of education, health, and security.

The IDB and Airbnb have teamed up to study the impact home sharing has on local communities and to aggregate information on travel trends across LAC. Moving forward, the partners will prioritize the joint promotion of sustainable tourism, the digital economy, and applications of the shared economy that can improve quality of life.

One of the IDB’s most active partners in transportation is the Federation Internationale de L'Automobile (FIA). Historically the partners have collaborated through the New Car Assessment Programme for Latin America and the Caribbean (Latin NCAP) and events like the IDB-FIA Forum that explore how to make the region’s roads safer. A milestone in this partnership was the Proyecto Luz Amarilla video contest, which worked with MTV Latin America and the Caribbean Development Bank to award the best road safety videos produced by young people in the region.

The Latin America Water Funds Partnership was established by the IDB, The Nature Conservancy, FEMSA Foundation, and the Global Environment Facility in 2011 to create and strengthen Water Funds across the region. In its first five years, the partnership has impacted more than 1.6 million hectares of ecosystem and reached more than 70 million people. In its second phase, which will be implemented over the next five years, it will focus on science and innovation, public policies and corporate practices, knowledge management and capacity development, and communication.

In 2012 the US$250 million Canadian Climate Fund for the Private Sector in the Americas was established by the Government of Canada and the IDB to shift billions of private investments into lower carbon, climate-proof projects. Using blended finance to lend at below-market rates and enable private investors to support projects, the fund continues to prioritize renewable energy, energy efficiency, agriculture and forestry, and resilient infrastructure projects, while promoting gender inclusive models across the board.

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the IDB established the Co-financing for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (CORE) program in 2012. With initial support of US$300 million and a focus on Central America and the Caribbean, JICA has since upped its financing twice — to US$1 billion in 2014 and to US$3 billion in 2016 — and CORE has broadened its reach to include the entire LAC region. To date, CORE has committed about US$1.5 billion of its funds to invest in quality infrastructure as a means of generating energy savings and mitigating climate change.

Peru’s 200,000 small coffee growers often struggle with limited coordination and low quality production. To help them thrive, the IDB and Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) assessed the potential of technologies to improve the coffee supply chain, enhance quality, and boost production. Through a capstone project, students worked with SIPA faculty and IDB specialists to observe seven coffee cooperatives in Peru’s Selva Central region. After months of study, they proposed recommendations to improve coffee quality and farmer livelihoods.

Founded in 2010 as a public-private partnership between the IDB and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Fundación Carlos Slim, the Government of Spain, the countries of Central America, and the state of Chiapas, Mexico, the Salud Mesoamerica Initiative (SMI) continues to support countries to improve access to health for women and children in the poorest quintile of Mesoamerica’s population. To date, the initiative has directly benefitted 1.8 million women of reproductive age and children aged less than five years, while indirectly benefitting an additional 4.5 million people these geographies.

The IDB and Fundación Bancaria la Caixa have a history of combining grants (including a half-million dollars committed by the Foundation in 2017), loans (including US$1.5 million from the Multilateral Investment Fund), and corporate volunteerism to empower smallholder farmers. For several years, the partners have leveraged CaixaBank’s knowledge to impart new capacities to micro and small farmers in Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, drawing from the expertise of volunteers to improve their management skills.

The IDB –led ConnectAmericas platform is dedicated to promoting foreign trade and international investment while helping small and medium enterprises grow. ConnectAmericas provides users information about procedures and regulations for international commerce, and connects them to clients, suppliers, and investors both in the region and around the world. The initiative’s partners include DHL, Facebook, Google, MasterCard, and SeaLand.

The IDB and Latinobarómetro joined forces to measure public opinion in LAC. The partners have already produced a study to assess citizens’ views on regional and global integration. Reaching 20,000 people in 18 countries, preliminary results concluded that one in four Latin Americans believe that global integration is critical to the region’s development. This effort is made possible, in part, thanks to the collaboration of CAF, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Transparency International.

In 2017 the IDB and its partners established the ECD Innovation Fund — a collaboration to finance, design, and evaluate new early childhood development (ECD) solutions. The fund is a partnership with the FEMSA Foundation and the Open Society Foundations at a regional level and with Fundação Maria Cecilia Souto Vidigal (FMCSV) in Brazil. The Fund, which expects to channel more than US$10 million in financing for ECD projects over the next three years, will prioritize knowledge exchange, innovation, and scalability.

To boost regional integration in Central America, in 2017 the European Union and the IDB jointly supported the Digital Platform for Central American Commerce. The platform seeks to advance commercial integration and the technological infrastructure needed to facilitate commerce. Its main goals include improving the interoperability of government systems, streamlining processes related to regional commerce, and providing information related to risk management, customs, and other important topics.

Latin America and the Caribbean is the most urbanized developing region on the planet: approximately 90% of the region’s population will be living in cities by 2050. This pace of urbanization presents daunting challenges for cities in the region, but also creates great opportunities for collaboration for those organizations that position themselves strategically to help solve these issues. At the IDB, we strive to help Latin American and Caribbean cities address the new urban agenda, developing an urban portfolio and knowledge program focused on sustainability and climate change mainstreaming. However, we know that collaboration between the private and public sectors, think tanks, academia, and civil society are all critical in giving strategic support to projects and initiatives. That’s why at the Housing and Urban Development Division we aim to be a link for development, connecting cities in the region to benefit on the worldwide experience the IDB and its partners have in housing, transportation, water and energy use, fiscal sustainability, among other areas. Click here for more information.