Working Together in Pursuit of Inclusive Business: Sharing the Latin American and Caribbean Experience with Asia and the Pacific: A Retrospective November 2013

Abstract

In 2012, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) entered into a formal partnership on South–South cooperation. One of the priority topics for this inter-institutional cooperation is inclusive business. Since 2008, the IDB has built up a dedicated program called Opportunities for the Majority (OMJ) for Latin America and the Caribbean with 45 private sector projects worth $250 million, leveraging more than $1 billion of additional investments, and 33 grant-financed technical assistance projects. ADB recently created its Inclusive Business Initiative to provide specific technical assistance and promote private sector investment that benefits the poor and lower-income groups in Asia and the Pacific. This publication summarizes the IDB’s OMJ program and provides recommendations for ADB to learn from Latin America in the pursuit of inclusive business. It is part of the IDB–ADB cooperation on knowledge exchange between the two regional development banks in Latin America and the Caribbean and in Asia and the Pacific.