WASHINGTON, 13 May 2009: The Inter-American Development Bank has approved the creation of a Multi-donor Gender and Diversity Fund, together with 10 million US dollar in grant resources to support gender and diversity mainstreaming in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The new fund will provide grants for initiatives that advance gender equality, reduce discrimination and support equitable development in the Bank’s 26 borrowing member countries.
Women and men affected by gender-based inequalities, indigenous peoples, and Afro-descendant communities are the three main target populations to be served by the fund. Priority areas have been identified within each target population, with a special focus on intersecting areas to address the multi-faceted dimensions of exclusion combining gender, ethnicity and race.
Up to 10 million US dollar from the IDB’s ordinary capital will help finance the fund’s operations, including an initial 4 million allocation approved for 2009. The fund’s long-term objective for these resources is the integration of gender and diversity perspectives in the development plans of Bank member countries throughout the region.
The program has a more sustainable funding mechanism of its own, the Multi-donor Gender and Diversity Fund itself, which is open to donors’ contributions, and seeks to streamline remaining resources from existing trust funds for gender equality and social inclusion under Bank administration.
– This is an important opportunity for the Bank to establish itself as a leader of gender and diversity issues in Latin America and the Caribbean, said Kei Kawabata, manager of the IDB Social Sector, in charge of the program’s activities. – It enhances our role as a partner for this region and it improves our capacity to promote equitable development.
Donor countries supporting existing trust funds for gender mainstreaming and social inclusion as well as new ones —such as Norway, Canada, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Austria— have expressed initial interest in joining the new fund.
The program’s main goal for equitable development is to be achieved through three main components —project development, institutional strengthening and capacity building, and knowledge management.
The Gender and Diversity Fund is established under the IDB’s new Framework for Technical Cooperation, approved in 2008 to increase and expedite access to grant resources, giving them greater flexibility and linking them strategically to the Bank’s lending portfolio.
The Framework for Technical Cooperation establishes a limited number of strategic thematic funds, focused on results, and financed with untied and preferably multi-donor grant contributions. The framework also expands the pool of grant resources available by including philanthropic foundations and private firms as donor partners, and it streamlines all grant resources into common standards under integrated management.
Kilde: www.iadb.org
