September 6, 2023- In the framework of Finance in Common 2023, the Latin American Association of Development Financing Institutions (ALIDE) organized a roundtable for chief economists that was held in Cartagena, Colombia.

During the event, the panelists analyzed the principal challenges confronting the public development banks and identified opportunities for maximizing their impact on the current situation, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals in the financial sector.

Romy Calderon, head of ALIDE’s Economic Studies and Information Program and the roundtable’s moderator, underscored as an issue of common interest the need for more resources and financing to be channelled by development financing institutions in appropriate conditions to needy sectors.

National and international DF

The participants in the first round were Laura Giles, Inter-American Development Bank national economist; Lavern McFarlane, senior economist of the CARICOM Development Fund; Enrique Florencio, Secretary General of ADFIAP; Cyril Okoye, Secretary General of AADFI; and Ian Durant, Director of the Economics Department of the Caribbean Development Bank.

The second round, for its part, was comprised of members of national development banks like Angela Penagos, President of FINAGRO; Chesron Isidora, CEO of Korpodeko; Blanca Navarro, ICO Strategy and Sustainability Director; Christian Sánchez, Risk Management Director of Nafin/Bancomext and Zeph Nhieko, Chief Economist of DBSA.

Knowledge Network

Prior to the roundtable’s culmination, the participants heard from the Knowledge Group, a knowledge network made up of a group of academicians, experts and researchers on Banking and Development Financing issues.

Régis Maroon, member of AFD and of the Knowledge Group, proposed a cooperation effort to share and elicit a discussion of the ALIDE and AFD databases. He also extended an invitation to the networks of development banks in several regions to share and expand knowledge at the international level.

About ALIDE

ALIDE is the community of financial institutions that produce banking solutions for Latin American and Caribbean development. Founded in 1968, its main purpose is to contribute to the region’s economic and social development by promoting the use of good development finance practices among its members. It is comprised of more than 80 member institutions operating in over 20 countries of Latin America and other regions of the world.

Contact

Communnication Unit of ALIDE
Phone: +511-203-5520 |: Ext: 227
comunicaciones@alide.org, comunicaciones2@alide.org
www.alide.org