Gerardo Esquivel offers dialogue and comprehensive vision of development before the IDB

The IDB, founded in 1959, addresses a wide range of issues, but it must be done with “a very comprehensive vision of development” because “it is an institution that goes far beyond financing and promoting economic growth,” he told AFP.

The benefits of development must be distributed “in a more equitable way”, with an environmental focus, racial equity and “a much more leadership, more comprehensive vision”.

For Esquivel, this is crucial in the current context, after the pandemic and in the face of inflation caused by the war in Ukraine.

Whenever there is a very deep crisis like the pandemic, which affected the poor above all, healing effects are generated that take time to resolve and countries have higher levels of debt and social demands, he explains.

For this reason, more than ever, an institution like the IDB “becomes relevant by identifying areas of opportunity” and “policies aimed at reducing healing costs,” he says. The institution was born with this mission and “it is what must be kept alive.”

To carry out its mission, the bank has two windows, one public, with more resources, and another private, known as IDB invest.

“The most important thing at this time for me is to evaluate the use of resources” from the public window, because “it is useless to have many more” if the impact is low, he affirms, clarifying that he is not opposed to expanding them.

The private window “possibly requires more resources if we want it to have a real impact in the region in the long run,” which is very heterogeneous.

Resources should be focused, according to him, on issues such as poverty, inequality, gender equality and climate change, with a certain “flexibility” to adapt to the needs of each area.

Nor should we lose sight of, he says, the reforms promoted by the board of directors and focused on “greater transparency.”

human capital

Esquivel considers it a priority to address another problem, internal to the bank, after the dismissal of the previous president, the American Mauricio Claver-Carone, for having given favorable treatment to a subordinate with whom he had a sentimental relationship.

After speaking with bank employees, Esquivel has come to the conclusion that “it is evident that there is a dialogue problem” between the previous administrative team and the board of directors.

To remedy this, he proposes “dialogue and respect to listen to the different positions without the need to generate unnecessary confrontations, which affected the institution in the sense that it was distracting from its most important mandate and also the morale of the workers.”

Bet on “a process of détente” to “try to restore the morale and prestige of the institution.” “We cannot ignore that there is a deterioration in that image, there has been a loss of human capital,” she said.

Looking ahead to Sunday, Esquivel is confident that his professional career, focused on development issues, is an asset in his favor, but he takes his candidacy with sportsmanship, and asks that the “most suitable” candidate for the region be elected.

In any case, he is happy that the helm of the IDB is returning to the hands of a Latin American, as it always was until the arrival of the American.

“The arrangement had always been a Latin American president with the participation of the United States in the management of the team, it is a scheme that had to be returned to because we already saw that the experiments that were carried out in the recent past were not ideal.”