Marking the IDB’s Fiftieth Anniversary

In March 2009 the IDB is set to commemorate 50 years of service and support to Latin America and the Caribbean in the form of loans, grants, guarantees, policy advice and technical assistance to the public and private sectors in its borrowing member countries. China joined the organization earlier this year as a donor country.

In 1959 the Organization of American States (OAS) drafted the Agreement Establishing the Inter-American Development Bank as a development institution with a mandate to address some of the issues with which the region was contending at the time.

Today the Bank has a consolidated matrix management organization, a heightened country presence, and quicker and more flexible lending facilities, and is better equipped to utilize new financing techniques and strengthen the focus on environmental protection and private sector development.