The International Financial Institutions Projects

The International Financial Intuitions more commonly referred to as IFIs are institutions that provide professional financial support and advice in developing countries in an attempt to gain global economic cooperation and stability. The term International Financial institution typically refers to the International Monetary fund (IMF) and its five multilateral development banks (MDBs): the World Bank Group, the African Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. The IMF and the World Bank together focuses on a more global aspect of the system, unlike the other four banks that are more regional based. The IFIs have taken on many projects over the years some deserve a gold medal, some a silver medal, and some a bronze. I have selected 3 projects which I will each give one of these medals based on the impact of the project had on the nations.

Decentralized Rural Transport Program in Peru

In an attempt to make rural residence in Peru have access to better roads the IMF funded a project to improve their roads and give them a more convenient way to travel. This project of improving the road established to help residents better access their neighboring communities to trade goods as well as quicker access to health services. The poor road conditions made transportation cost more expense and some travel at times dangerous. Due to these conditions, the World Bank and the inter-American Development Bank collaborated in 2006 to form the “Decentralized Rural Transport Program in Peru”. The project was aimed at improving and maintaining the roads while enabling residence to travel safer and more conveniently and by extension develop some of the poorest communities. The full cost of the project was $US 150 million with the World Bank providing a loan of $US50 million. The project was scheduled to commence December 2006 and to complete by March 2013, this dated had to be extended to March 2013 because of setbacks due mainly to elections in the country.

A project of this nature gets a gold medal for the scope of the project and how the members of the community were involved to change their own lives.The new roads had some positives; it created 808 microenterprises for road maintenance in 20 regions and provided opportunities for jobs in sales and character building. In general, the projects helped the community to contribute to its own development. This project could have been more impactful if they extend it to some urban areas so it serves as a model for collaboration between communities far and wide. The only negative that was highlighted was the need to extend the project by a year.

A pilot program to preserve the Brazilian rainforest

The Pilot program to preserve the Brazilian rain forest was established through the collaboration of the Brazilian Government, Brazilian civil society, and the international community to protect the rainforest of the Amazon and Brazil’s Atlantic coast. The primary aim of the project was to preserve the forest to meet the needs of the current generation without compromising for the future generation. The forest can be used as a source of earning for the residence without compromising its quality. With The rainforest covering more than half of Brazil’s land, it is of great importance to preserve it. The Rain Forest Trust Funds was established by the World Bank in 1992 and provided a grant of $50 million. Germany, The European Union, and the United States made an additional contribution to the project by jointly establishing grants with the World Bank.

Such project gets a silver medal since all the objectives will not be met in short term but it is a project of great importance to Brazil and the planet. The impact of the project will be greater when the entire country gets involved to protect this natural reserve. The rest of the world is now playing a role in protecting the entire planet and that’s what we need.

So far the program has been reaping some success; a forest fire during the dry season leading to a campaign to reduce the possibility of another of such nature reoccurring. Farmers were educated on the dangers and well as safer ways to clear lands rather than burning.

The program has been met with a few obstacles; there is some uncertainty on the part of the farmers as it relates to finding markets for new products from the new practices and future education on the new practice being proposed to them.

Bangladesh Integrated Nutrition Project (BINP)

The Bangladesh Integrated Nutrition Project (BINP) was established in response to a low birth weight and malnourished children and women of childbearing age. The program comprised of three main components: (1) the nutritional-level nutrition activities, (2) the multisectorial (garden and poultry raising) and the community-based nutrition component (CBNC). The funds allocated for each component were $20.6M, $7.6M and $39.1M, respectively. A total of $56.1M was disbursed by the World Bank in December 2002.

A project of this nature gets a bronze medal since the project did not show much success. This project would have been more meaningful to the target group if they had spent more time education they mothers on the importance of proper nutrition and have additional sessions where they share success stories etc.

Some experts analyzed the project and report some success while other experts report it as a failure. Such controversies lead to persons not willing to continue with the project. There was also to division among Technical/administration and political persons over the project.