The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has launched the second call for proposals for civil society organizations that carry out activities focused on poverty reduction and social inclusion and development in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The announcement was made in Panama City, Panama by Yasuhiro Atsumi, the bank’s executive director, for the government of Japan, at the IDB annual meeting, attended by about 200 delegates.
The call is for projects that support development through sustainable solutions in education, social protection, gender and rural community development in vulnerable communities in the 26 borrowing countries of the region.
According to the IDB, winning organizations will be awarded a total of US$5 million in non-refundable technical cooperation; each project will receive between US$500,000 and US$1 million.
The funds come from the Japan Special Fund for Poverty Reduction administrated by the bank. Proposals must be submitted before May 15, 2013 through IDB’s website.
“We believe civil society organizations that have key technical capacity and community reach are natural operational partners for the IDB and in that they can provide innovative solutions and participative methods to solving development problems and in a sustainable manner”, said Roberto Vellutini, vice president for countries at the IDB.
During the meeting, he said opinions were exchanged and presentations of experiences and proposals from civil society, governments, private sector and IDB were made regarding the creation and implementation of innovative partnerships for sustainable, inclusive development.
In their role of social leaders and public figures, the panelists discussed lessons learned and best practices in projects with high social impact.
The IDB said Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) are key partners in the development of the region, adding that it “highly values” the contribution these organizations make as technical experts, knowledge generators, project implementators, defenders of vulnerable communities and promoters of transparency.
IDB said it works directly with CSOs in the execution of projects that impact development. In this regard, it said organizations have contributed greatly to IDB’s work, and with their technical contributions and field knowledge of the communities where the bank operates.
The Japanese trust funds are the result of the cooperation and contribution efforts between IDB and Japan for the development of Latin America and the Caribbean.
The IDB said the resources of the Japanese Trust Funds have been directed to support small countries with few resources in social sectors, such as the environment, infrastructure, and productive activities.
The IDB said the call for proposals is specifically related to Community Development Programs of the Japan Special Fund for Poverty Reduction.
“This fund has an ample trajectory in the implementation of community development programs in varied sectors of many countries with the contribution of many local community development organizations,” it said.
