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Under the motto "50 years financing inequality" a group of civil society organisations, networks and movements are working on a campaign on occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), to be celebrated during the next Meeting of the Board of IADB Governors. For the group, this is an important landmark to evidence the failure of the development model promoted by the IADB and present alternatives proposed by the peoples of the Americas aimed at their well-being.

As stated by the IADB’s Articles of Agreement, in force since December 30 1959, the aim of the institution is “to contribute to the acceleration of the process of both economic and social, individual and collective development of developing member countries in the region”. However, in order to achieve such aim, the roles developed by the Bank have gone far beyond the economic assistance and promotion of public and private capital investments; including also advocacy actions in economic, labour, fiscal and foreign trade policies, which have failed to achieve the expected goals, but have on the contrary contributed to reproduce inequality.

According to the Bank’s own publications, “the IADB works directly with countries to fight poverty and promote social equality through programmes specifically suited to local conjunctural situations”. Nevertheless, the indicators disclosed by the IADB certainly account for part of the work carried out, but as it was maintained by Jorge Luis Borges, publicity is strange since it aims at making us believe as true, what somebody else says about himself/herself. This is why civil society organisations aim to make a fair copy of official indicators with a view to highlighting the deficiencies and the low level of fulfillment regarding proposed goals by the Bank.

It clearly stands out that poverty reduction has been an unfulfilled goal by the IADB. Furthermore, Latin America shows alarming indicators in terms of inequality, having the world’s highest inequality levels in terms of income distribution. The per capita income of the richest 10% exceeds, in many countries, the income of the poorest 40% by 20 times or more.

Therefore, social organisations, movements and networks believe that the IADB’s 50th anniversary is an important landmark to evidence the failure of the development model promoted by the Bank and present alternatives proposed by the peoples of the Americas aimed at their well-being. In this framework, they have decided to organise a popular meeting in parallel to the Meeting of the Bank’s Board of Governors to be held on March 27-31, 2009, in Medellín, Colombia. The event will be organised around three core issues: (i) Finance and Financial Crisis; (ii) Environmental Sustainability and Climate Change; and (iii) Human Rights.

This campaign represents a convergence of initiatives advocating for the transformation of the hegemonic development model, already in crisis. The broad, active and demanding participation of activists, scholars, artists, legislators and peer government officials is essential to counteract the actions scheduled by the IADB and the Government of Colombia for this celebration.

Related Information:

-> Website of the campaign: www.frentebid2009.org (in spanish language)

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