This paper reviews the Bank's lending experience in rural finance and extracts the lessons learned from that experience. It is based on a review of project documents, evaluation reports, and interviews. A sample of 27 projects were studied in detail. Although the review of IDB projects is far...

This report concentrates on the potential for biotechnology research to benefit consumers and producers of food in Latin America and the Caribbean. Its objective is to provide general guidance to IDB lending for agriculture development. The study includes policy suggestions regarding...

The Bank has developed and implemented several initiatives to reduce poverty and to improve rural competitiveness during the past decade. This document updates and establishes operational principles to guide action in this area so that the stated goals of the Mandate can be effectively achieved....

This document identifies priorities for Bank action in the sector to guide the allocation of resources in support of the strategic elements and objectives it describes. The paper aims to facilitate the preparation of loans and technical cooperation programs and to improve their quality, building...

Poverty has a high social cost for countries of the region: it negatively affects all aspects of society because of migration to the cities, destabilizing political consequences, and the pressures that poverty exerts on the environment. This book looks for new ways to alleviate rural poverty,...

This paper examines the decentralization process in Colombia, particularly as it relates to reforms embodied in the 1991 Constitution, and the bailouts of territorial entities that have occurred in subsequent years as a result of perverse incentive structures. The paper provides a summary of the...

Honduran farmers are at a disadvantage when dealing with intermediaries because they lack timely information about market prices. This paper first analyzes which information and communications technology (ICT) would be most suitable for sending price information to producers scattered throughout...

This paper constructs a baseline and pursues an overall impact evaluation of the PETT (Programa Especial de Titulación de Tierras), an ambitious rural titling program created in Peru in 1992. The general evaluation of impacts on farmers shows a picture of not many positive effects, at least in...

The incomplete privatization of the electric sector in Peru provides a unique scenario for evaluating the impact of public versus private provision. The results in this paper suggest that management of electricity firms by the private sector leads to a significant improvement in the quality of...

This paper takes advantage of a quasi-natural experiment in Peru by which the privatized telecommunications company was required by government to randomly install and operate public pay phones in small rural towns throughout the national territory. Using a specially designed household survey for...