This working paper discusses "Safer Commune" - a neighbourhood crime prevention program in Chile that has come under criticism via evidence of rising crime rates and fear of crime in municipalities with the program. The author argues that this criticism is incorrect and shows empirical evidence...

Social investment funds, a widely used tool of development efforts, aim to support and strengthen local capacity for effective implementation of social and economic infrastructure projects through participatory, community-driven approaches. This working paper investigates whether these...

This document focuses on four sectors where socio-cultural analysis is particularly critical for addressing issues of reducing poverty and exclusion. In the case of major infrastructure projects, the primary concern is to minimize or mitigate their impacts on local communities. For projects in...

This brochure describes the economic ties between Japan and Latin America, placing the Japanese trust funds in the context of meeting challenges in the region. This document describes the Japanese trust funds and provides examples of how these funds have created opportunities for people to build...

This is the last version available of the present document that was commissioned by the Natural Disaster Network of the Regional Policy Dialogue. The aim of this study is to strengthen local governments, institutions and communities for undertaking disaster risk management, and establishing...

The present document seeks to set forth the IDB's commitment to the objectives contained in the Declaration of Guadalajara and the parallel Memorandum of Understanding, a commitment that has taken shape in Bank programs and lending, as well as in a growing number of coordination efforts and...

The starting point for this document was the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) technical cooperation project Gender and Municipal Development (NI-T1002), which was financed by the Bank's Capacity Building Fund for Local Institutions in Central America (CABILICA) and implemented in...

Civil society organizations (CSOs) have become an important way to mobilize the energies of those who have been historically unrepresented or underrepresented. The eleven case studies in this book present a wide-ranging view of CSOs in Latin America and their impact on the political and social...

Building Cities reviews the experiences of the Latin American and Caribbean region in the design and implementation of neighbourhood upgrading programmes. The volume has a particular focus on the lessons learned by specialists of the Inter-American Development Bank and their technical and...

This book describes the interaction between community organizations (OPCs, or organizaciones de participación comunitaria), the local communities, and the public sector in Venezuela, Costa Rica, and Chile. The case studies included in this book evaluate the activity of OPCs in each of the three...