AMERICAS
Hemispheric bank seeks Rx for poverty
The hemisphere's economic brain trust convenes in Miami Beach for the region's most important financial meeting of the year by the Inter-American Development Bank.
Posted on Fri, Apr. 04, 2008
BY JANE BUSSEY
When the foremost economic teams from the Americas gather Friday for the kick-off of the Inter-American Development Bank's annual meeting, the spotlight will be shining on an initiative to harness the force of private philanthropy to fight poverty.
The IDB meeting opens at the Miami Beach Convention Center with entrepreneurs such as Microsoft's Bill Gates joining bank officials, central bank presidents and finance ministers from Latin America and the Caribbean to highlight the development bank's effort to form partnerships with private companies to tackle age-old development problems.
Despite clouds on the global economic horizon, the prospects for Latin America and the Caribbean are relatively bright. But the bank is convinced that it needs the private sector and new partnerships to thrive in the region.
''The bank is unequivocally committed to challenging Latin America and the Caribbean to be much more philanthropic,'' said Jorge Arrizurieta, chairman of the Miami Host Committee for the meeting, which will have around 6,000 participants. ``The reason for that is the evidence that philanthropy is a means of economic development.''
Microsoft, for example, announced Thursday it is collaborating with the IDB and the Organization of American States in a $4 million expansion of the Partnership in Opportunities for Employment through Technology in the Americas, a program offering technology training to people with disabilities and at-risk youth.
The IDB will get down to its main business -- taking stock of the economies of the region and analyzing the bank's past and future performance -- Monday when both U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson and U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez will be in attendance.
But three days of forums, meetings, informal discussion and other activities will precede next week's official inauguration. The Friday morning schedule will feature a conversation with IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno and Gates, followed by a session featuring Latin music stars Ricky Martin, Juan Luis Guerra and Juanes discussing their own philanthropic efforts to combat poverty.
In contrast to trade meetings held in Miami, such as the 2003 ministerial meeting for the now-defunct Free Trade Area of the Americas proposal -- which drew massive street protests, only scattered demonstrations are expected.
Some civil society groups that will be at the meeting warn that the bank promotes unsustainable development with mega-projects that exacerbate instead of alleviate poverty.
For South Florida, the meeting is a chance to put on the Ritz.
The Miami Host Committee will be receiving all official delegations at the airport and putting on a closing bash at Bongos Cuban Café.
The committee has raised $4.6 million in cash and in-kind donations for the $5 million meeting, with the Inter-American Development Bank making up the rest.
Arrizurieta headed a team of five paid staffers and 15 volunteers to prepare for the massive meeting.
IDB offices and headquarters for each of the 47 member countries attending the meeting have been constructed in convention center, requiring installation of 450 telephone lines and 450 desktop computers.
Local artist Romero Britto designed the meeting logo and the member nations' flags flank a red carpet at the convention center.
Arrizurieta said hosting the meeting allows Miami to underscore its role as Gateway to the Americas, a position coveted by other commercial centers in the hemisphere.
''It's important that the public and private sector do what they are doing -- putting on their best for this important meeting,'' he said.
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