Inter-American Development Bank Sustainability Report 2017

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Date
Mar 2018
The geographic location of the Latin America and the Caribbean region makes it susceptible to natural disasters, including hurricanes, landslides, droughts, and earthquakes. In 2017, Latin America and the Caribbean faced a series of devastating natural disasters, including an active hurricane season (with two category five storms—Irma and Maria), a tropical storm in Central America (Nate), flooding in Peru, mudslides in Colombia, and two major earthquakes in Mexico. In many cases, climate change is making these tragic events more frequent and worsening their impact. At the same time, Latin America and the Caribbean remains the most unequal region in the world. Women, indigenous peoples, and African descendants frequently suffer development opportunity gaps. We also know that disasters disproportionately affect the poor. These disasters and how they affect people highlight the increasing need to ensure sustainable development in the region.
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Climate Change Agreement marked a turning point in the international commitment to deliver sustainable development. As the agenda continues to gain momentum, the IDB is committed to supporting member countries’ efforts to translate the agenda into meaningful country-level targets, policies, programs, and projects. We provide financial and non-financial resources to governments, businesses, and civil society organizations in our 26 borrowing member countries, including loans for investment projects, policy reforms, and help in managing financial crises. We also provide technical cooperation, convene global experts, and conduct research to further the understanding of critical issues and seek solutions. In this report, we showcase some of the initiatives, operations, and research the IDB financed and worked on with partners to contribute to the sustainability agenda in 2017, selected based on a Bank-wide call for inputs.