In March 1971, Antonio Ortiz Mena, in his inaugural address as President of the IDB, indicated that the decade of the 1970s, to which his incipient management was hinting, would bring new challenges to add to those not encountered during the decade had been completely resolved years The first ten years of the existence of the IDB. More than half a century later, Don Antonio’s logic prevails overwhelmingly: in terms of development, the new challenges are piling up while the old ones are not fully resolved.
It is no longer just about fighting poverty and inequality or finding mechanisms that guarantee sustainable growth in the region. Today, the IDB cannot abandon its founding goals, but neither must it forget to bring the challenge of climate change and the need to promote racial and gender inclusion into the equation. The bank must help reduce regional disparities while narrowing the digital divide. The idea of development today implies a much broader and more complex agenda than in 1960.
This institution must be transformed into a flexible and innovative development bank. The variety of needs in the region requires an institution that can adapt to it. It is clear that small and island countries need different treatment than medium-sized and large countries. The forms of trade integration in the southern part of the continent differ from those in the center or in the north. Climate change is a challenge that affects the entire region, but the impacts are different in the Pampas, the Caribbean and the Amazon. Despite the complications that this diversity brings, the bank must be able to respond to the needs of the region.
The Covid-19 pandemic, with all the pain it has caused, should serve as a red flag as it has not only exposed the precariousness in which a significant percentage of this hemisphere’s population lives, but has also exacerbated inequalities across the board . The most obvious impact was seen in access to health care, as the pandemic hit the poorest hardest, who suffered higher hospitalizations and deaths.
Unfortunately, this tragic effect was not the only one. The confinement led to learning losses, which also had a regressive trend: children in households without access to electricity or the internet, or without the appropriate electronic tools, were hardest hit. This is where the digital divide showed itself in all its severity and its effects can only be quantified in the long term. If we have learned anything from this ordeal, it is that we cannot keep doing the same thing and expect different results.
And we have to go further: The IDB must see itself as more than just a financial institution. The IDB’s institutional and technical capabilities enable it to become an institution capable of providing the necessary leadership to reach agreements, find new development strategies, guide efforts in long-term processes and provide solutions to current problems . The IDB must provide the intellectual leadership that enables it to face the changes that are already taking place in the world, always with the founding mandate of reducing inequalities and fighting poverty as the guiding axis of all these actions.
What is at stake is the future. Initially, the IDB set an agenda that remains valid despite the profound changes we have witnessed over the past few decades. Part of the challenge for anyone leading the IDB in the years to come is to emulate those who originally gave the institution a long-term mandate, because, as Antonio Ortiz Mena once said, “Institutions like ours that expect to to function indefinitely must try to look to the future if they want to continue to be useful”.
Gerardo Esquivel He holds a PhD in economics from Harvard University. He is currently Deputy Governor of the Banco de México. He was appointed head of the Inter-American Development Bank by the Mexican government.
Subscribe here to the EL PAÍS México newsletter and receive all the important information about current events in this country
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits