Corporate Evaluation: Contingent Lending Instruments
Date issued
May 2016
Financial and economic crises and natural disasters can have serious and lasting negative effects on income and poverty, and can cause irreversible losses of physical and human capital. The welfare effects of exogenous shocks have prompted multilateral development banks, including the Inter-American Development Bank, to provide crisis lending to their borrowing member countries to avoid retrenchments in development caused by crisis-related fiscal pressures. The Board of Executive Directors has requested that the Office of Evaluation and Oversight conduct an independent assessment of IDB's contingent instruments designed to help countries cope with shocks. OVE's review is meant to inform a forthcoming study by the Office of Strategic Planning and Development Effectiveness aimed at proposing alternatives to better align Bank instruments to country financing and development needs, including countercyclical support.