IDB Inter American Development Bank : Germany and the IDB Enter a New Decade of Partnership

Germany and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) will expand their long-standing partnership into newareas of collaboration, including climate change adaptation, renewable energy and energy efficiency, and climate-resilient urban infrastructure. 

In an open-ended agreement signed last week in Berlin by IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno and Hans-Joachim Fuchtel, German Governor and Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the partners also committed to working together on shaping new financial mechanisms to promote climate-smart agriculture and reduce emissions from land use change, deforestation and forest degradation. 

Germany is the top contributor to the IDB's Sustainable Energy and Climate Change Initiative (SECCI), with more than US$21 million committed since the fund's inception. Germany has been a driver of knowledge and innovation for the IDB, supporting the Bank on pioneering projects and efforts to mainstream sustainability issues within IDB operations. 

To date, SECCI has proven a vital force behind the IDB's climate change efforts, directly contributing to the approval of over 200 Bank-financed projects, the training of almost 7,000 specialists, as well as the financing of numerous pre-investment studies since its inception in 2007. 

"Today we celebrate the accomplishments of a decade of collaboration with BMZ and its agencies, KfW and GIZ," said Moreno. "We look forward to working in the years ahead, taking advantage of what we have learned so far. With the staff seconded at the IDB by Germany, we will not only continue but also broaden the work we do together."

"We have achieved a great deal in 10 years of strategic partnership between the IDB and the BMZ," said Fuchtel. "I am very glad that we will continue our successful cooperation and that BMZ will further accompany the IDB on its way to becoming the premiermultilateral development bank in climate change-related matters in Latin America". 

An IDB member country since 1976, Germany has been a key driver of the Bank's climate change and green growth agenda. Through KfW Development Bank and its international cooperation agency GIZ, Germany has recently co-financed such inventive development solutions as the region's first Concentrated Solar Power plant and a sustainable housing initiative in Mexico.

About BMZ

The Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) develops the guidelines and the fundamental concepts on which German development policy is based. It devises long-term strategies for cooperation with the various players concerned and defines the rules for implementing that cooperation. These are the foundations for developing shared projects with partner countries and international development organizations. All efforts are informed by the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals, which ambitiously aim to halve poverty in the world by 2015.

About IDB

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) is a multilateral financial institution supporting Latin American and the Caribbean efforts to reduce poverty and inequality, and to bring about development in a sustainable, climate-friendly way. Established in 1959, it is the leading source of development financing for Latin America and the Caribbean, with a strong commitment to achieving measurable results.