I.D.B. seeks greater impact on poverty

International financial organisations are not shy when it comes to publicising their accomplishments, but today one of those institutions had no problem admitting that it has, in fact, made some mistakes … some very expensive mistakes. At a press briefing this afternoon, the Inter-American Development Bank launched its newest initiative entitled “Building Opportunity for the Majority”, that is the low-income majority in Latin America and the Caribbean. According to Marta Mejia-Zampieri, of the I.D.B.’s office in Belize, the bank has changed its approach and is now looking more closely at how its activities directly affect the poor.

Marta Mejia-Zampieri, Senior Multi Sector Specialist, I.D.B.
?For many years, we?ve been doing a lot of programmes, a lot of education projects, health projects and things like that and what has happened is that people are not any better off. If anything, a lot of people are poorer than before and the inequality has gotten bigger. So then, if you help at a macro level, let?s say at government big projects or something like that, it doesn?t necessarily mean that the benefits are going to trickle down. And therefore the majority at the bottom doesn?t get the benefits or not everybody gets the benefits for which programs were intended and therefore that is why a lot of this is targeted to work with everybody not just governments.?

?The bank has learned a lot in the last few years. And one of the things that we have learned is that we can work with everybody in society to make sure that things get done and to make sure that the impact, in the end what we are looking for is to make sure that we have an impact. It?s not the project in itself, but the results of the project.?

Today’s launch was a precursor to an I.D.B. Conference scheduled for June twelfth and thirteenth in Washington D.C., where poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean is expected to dominate the agenda.