Through the funding of e-Inclusion and digital infrastructure initiatives

CAF proposes a fund for developed countries to support the revival of Latin America

photo_camera CAF

The post-COVID-19 economic recovery and the future of the social contract in the Americas will be one of the central themes of the 24th CAF Conference, which will be held virtually from 9-11 September and will be attended by more than 30 leaders including the President of Uruguay, Luis Lacalle Pou, and the Nobel Prize winner in Economics, Joseph Stiglitz, among others.

The COVID-19 pandemic will represent a 9% contraction in Latin America despite the efforts of governments, businesses and workers. The region's economic reactivation requires sources of financing that exceed current capacities; therefore, CAF - Latin American development bank - in addition to granting a record amount of $16 billion this year, proposes with the support of its 19 shareholder countries to structure a fund to finance integration and digital infrastructure projects.

The scope of this fund, structured and administered by CAF, will be to issue debt in the international capital markets, guaranteed by a group of developed countries, and that these resources are invested in the multilateral's shareholder countries through loans that support their economic recovery. There are already 490 quality projects identified in 11 sub-sectors and aligned with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement to combat climate change.

The post-COVID-19 economic recovery and the future of the social contract in the Americas; a conversation on the coronavirus, climate change and the environment: what challenges for Latin America and the Caribbean; successes and failures: our health systems under pressure; are some of the central themes that will be addressed during the 24th CAF Conference, which since 1997 together with the Inter-American Dialogue and the Organization of American States is one of the main hemispheric events to discuss and analyze the major political, economic and social trends in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The 24th Annual CAF Conference will be attended by leaders such as Luis Lacalle Pou, President of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay; Joseph E. Stiglitz, Nobel Prize winner in Economics; Carissa F. Etienne, Director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and Regional Director for the Americas of the World Health Organization (WHO); Carmen Reinhart, Vice President and Chief Economist of the World Bank Group; Paula Santilli, Executive Director of PepsiCo Latin America; Alicia Bárcena, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC); Luis Carranza, Executive President of CAF; Michael Shifter, President of the Inter-American Dialogue; and Luis Almagro, Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS). 

Other panelists who will participate include Thomas A. Shannon Jr., co-chair of the Inter-American Dialogue and former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Political Affairs; Luis Felipe López Calva, regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean of the United Nations Development Programme; Rebeca Grynspan, Ibero-American Secretary General (SEGIB) and former vice president of Costa Rica; and Brigitte Baptiste, rector of EAN University and former director of the Alexander von Humboldt Biological Resources Institute.

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