Development projects have a wider set of impacts than just direct project outputs. A hydropower dam, for example, produces electricity but also disrupts river flows and may affect biodiversity and the general aquatic environment. A new port development may affect coastal resources such as...

The Environment and Safeguards Group (ESG) of the IDB has examined how potential environmental and social risks of major Bank-supported road improvement investments in natural resource rich and socio-culturally diverse "frontier" regions have been identified and addressed in various parts of...

The intended goal of this paper is to expand the IDB's current disaster policy in the area of human-driven disasters. This paper explores and expands on the definition and scope of "human-driven" disasters in order to strengthen the policy in its present area of "unexpected" disasters. This...

The Environment and Safeguards Group (ESG) of the IDB has examined how potential environmental and social risks of major Bank-supported road improvement investments in natural resource rich and socio-culturally diverse "frontier" regions have been identified and addressed in various parts of...

The purpose of this technical note is to identify key environment and safeguard-related risks and opportunities that should be taken into account in the new Country Strategy for the Dominican Republic (DR) as required by the IDB's Environment and Safeguard Policy approved in January 2006....

This study has been carried out with the purpose of assessing the overall investment needs of Latin America and the Caribbean by 2015, based on the assumption of meeting the Millennium Development Goals with regards to improving access to drinking water services and to better sanitation. It...

This presentation discusses the matching grant program started in Argentina in August of 1996. The objective of the program is to help increase the international competitiveness of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) by facilitating access to, and reducing costs of export related services. This...

This report outlines the findings of the Economist Intelligence Unit¿s in-depth analysis of the microfinance business environment in 55 countries. The index that underlies this report allows countries and regions to be compared across three broad categories: regulatory framework, investment...

SMEs are positioning themselves as a strategic branch of banking operations in the region, while banks are increasingly pushing for more active policies when it comes to the financing of SMEs. This is one of the highlighted conclusions from a 2011 joint survey conducted by the Inter-American...

This presentation features the role of Credit Unions in the Caribbean. It explores how they foster business initiatives based on a co-operative model in order to develop small and medium enterprises (SMEs).