Critiques and evaluations
Discontent, confusion, non-transparency: how to become relevant in Latin America
How far has the Inter-American Development Bank reformed itself?
Authors:
V. McElhinny
Publisher:
Bank Information Center , 2007
Since October 2005, the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) has undergone significant changes in structure and lending practices, under the leadership of the new President Alberto Moreno. This report provides a background on these changes and higlights issues of concern.
The Bank’s restructuring process consisted of three principal components:
- decentralization of Bank functions to get closer to borrowing countries
- faster loan disbursement
- increased lending - particularly for energy and transport infrastructure and private sector ventures.
The paper finds that this restructuring process has created widespread discontent among staff at the organisation, due to a fear that 300 to 400 middle managers and senior staff could become redundant in the new structure.
It also notes a perceived gap between the rhetoric and the actions of the Bank in transforming its capacity to provide intellectual and moral leadership on meeting the hemisphere’s environmental and sustainability challenges. In particular, it finds a failure to implement the recommendations were made by the Blue Ribbon Panel on the Environment, which included:
- make the business case for sustainability
- correct the sustainability functions within the Bank organisation
- provide adequate human and financial resources to sustainability functions
Other concerns and shortcomings include:
- the restructuring will not bring about increased effectiveness because the Bank is primarily interested in lending rather than providing sound technical advice on emerging development challenges
- civil society has been excluded from the realignment process and that there remain very few mechanisms through which civil society can be adequately engaged.
