Environmental and Social Safeguards

In our previous blog of this 3-part blog series, we showed how earlier safeguards involvement in project cycles contributes to improved sustainability performance. In this blog, we illustrate how the use of safeguards helps countries manage environmental and social impacts, and help sponsors implement innovative best practices. Our research on The Role of IDB’s Safeguards … [Read more...] about Part III: Can safeguards help countries improve their sustainability performance?

On the day we celebrated the World Day of Social Justice, it seemed appropriate to talk about education, as education is one of the basic pillars to achieve social justice. Regardless of whether we look at it on a global scale “as an underlying principle for peaceful and prosperous coexistence within and among nations”, or within each individual country as a way to “"improve … [Read more...] about Three environmental and social pitfalls to avoid on education programs

In our previous blog of this 3-part blog series, we learned that safeguard policies are instrumental in facilitating sustainability in IDB projects. In this blog, we provide findings demonstrating how earlier safeguards involvement in project cycles contributes to improved sustainability performance. All nine IDB-funded projects evaluated in our research (The Role of IDB’s … [Read more...] about Part II: Does early safeguards involvement in projects improve sustainability performance?

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) defines the term “Safeguards” as a “set of policies to ensure protection against environmental and social harm, improve development value for stakeholders, and enable countries and clients to meet best international practices.” In relation to sustainability, the purpose of implementing safeguards is to develop projects that maximize … [Read more...] about Part I: Why are safeguards important for sustainable growth?

Preserving Suriname’s “Outstanding Universal Value” Last year when I went to Suriname for the first time ever, even the worldliest among my friends and family struggled to put the small former Dutch colony on a map. Suriname, along with Guyana to its West and French Guiana to its East, make up the “Guianas” a geographic region in north-eastern South America, considered … [Read more...] about How is an urban development project safeguarding a World Heritage Site in Suriname?