The new president of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the Brazilian Ilan Goldfajn, released this Thursday in Washington the priorities of its management, but there is no news on the vice-presidencies –one of them would have offered himself to Argentina– nor at the Institute of Gender which they said it would create when our country turned down Cecilia Todesca’s candidacy for the presidency of the organization.
Goldfajn arrived with a conciliatory message. He promised to do it “seize all opportunities for dialogue” and collaboration to build consensus among governments, private sector partners, think tanks and civil society to help address the most pressing issues and attract private capital. He stressed that “in this moment of global polarization and uncertainty, our future does not depend on confrontation, but on collaboration”.
After the scandalous departure of Cuban-American Mauricio Claver Carone – fired for an affair with an official whose salary was increased by 40% – Goldfajn was elected president on November 20, after feverish regional negotiations.
Your vote has been completed after the agreement signed between the United States, Canada, Brazil and Argentina who voted for the Brazilian, former director of the western hemisphere of the IMF, who had been proposed by the then government of Jair Bolsonaro and then retained by Lula da Silva after the elections.
Argentina had nominated for Cecilia Todesca Bocco and, according to what was said at the time by minister Sergio Massa, he lowered his candidacy (which had little chance) in exchange for the vice-presidency of the Sectors, Infrastructure Management and the creation of the Institute of Gender and Equality in the corps, which Argentina was interested in leading. There is no news about it yet.
Goldfajn took office in December and immediately he tried to change the tense climate and persecution which was in the corridors of the IDB under the direction of Carone.
how he learned clarion, the senior official who had benefited from the former president and who had taken strong power in the Bank left his post on December 31st. Also, employee salaries were increased by 6%, an increase that staff had asked for in the face of mounting inflation and which failed to materialize during the previous era. Goldfajn speaks “to heal” the institution, to work as a team, and granted an unprecedented week off for the entire plant between Christmas and New Year’s.
This Thursday morning he had a face-to-face and virtual meeting with the Bank’s employees to establish the priorities of his management and in the afternoon he publicly delivered his so-called “keynote speech”. The Brazilian has named his team closest to him, but has not yet named vice presidents, who need to be approved by the board. He told employees he would do it “later,” possibly after the March Board of Governors. Due to its weight in the IDB, Argentina should get at least one key vice presidency, experts estimate.
Goldfajn exposed the pillars of his management:
Fight against poverty and inequality: promote health, education, universal access to public services for a better quality of life and food security.
Promote sustainable infrastructure: promote connectivity, technologies, infrastructures to promote growth and regional integration. Goldfajn said he will work to ensure IDB projects deliver more effective results, with his work driven by data and evidence. “It’s not just the number of loans we approve that really matters,” she said. “What is key is the tangible and measurable development impact.”
Fight against climate change: Goldfajn stressed that the IDB will work to facilitate investment in climate mitigation and adaptation and more ambitiously help countries achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement.
In the message to employees, she said promoting gender and equality policies will be among her priorities, though she didn’t mention whether it would be created into the Institute for Gender and Equality, which Argentina was keen to lead. From the bank they point to clarion that there is already a gender divide and that for now they do not see clearly what the mission of a new entity in this matter would be.
“My vision is to build on the Bank’s legacy to ensure the IDB is the premier multilateral development institution for Latin America and the Caribbean,” said Goldfajn. “We must be the most reliable partner in the region. A center of experience and knowledge. A beacon of innovative solutions to the challenges of our region,” she added.
Source: Clarin
