The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has identified its key role as working to improve the lives of people living in Latin America and the Caribbean. The institution says it aims to do this through financial and technical support for countries that are working to reduce poverty and inequality.
With a fairly unblemished history since its establishment in 1959, the IDB has found itself at the centre of controversy that is quite unsettling. Just two weeks ago, the institution was thrust into the spotlight after directors voted to fire president of the bank Mauricio Claver-Carone, over what they deemed as unethical behaviour.
Claver-Carone was picked by former United States president Donald Trump, who himself is under multiple ethical and criminal investigations. The IDB president was dismissed following a probe into allegations that he was romantically involved with an employee, whom he favoured on the job and to whom he gave a significant raise of pay.
Normally, the post of IDB president goes to a Latin American, but Trump moved Claver-Carone from working in his White House to heading the IDB. This later led to a rift between the US and several Latin American countries.
But having put that ethics storm to rest, the IDB is again at the centre of another scandal for “inadvertently” retaining highly intrusive and offensive questions in a survey to 11-year-old Barbadian school children, questions it promised the Ministry of Education it would remove.
It was through excellent reporting from Barbados TODAY which uncovered the debacle that has outraged citizens and likely harmed many children who were also exposed to activity to their parents.
Even with the belated apologies from the IDB after the issue blew up in their faces and the one that came even later from senior officials in the Ministry of Education, many Barbadians are still not satisfied. And who can blame them?
The Washington-headquartered bank said in its statement of apology, “The IDB recognises its position as a development partner with the Government of Barbados, with a long and mutually-respectful relationship, and assures Barbadians it would not deliberately engage in any practice that would harm that relationship.”
Someone ought to inform the folks at the IDB that the damage has already been done. Not only should they indicate the commencement of a full internal investigation into the matter, but the findings should be made public.
We are also calling on the bank to tell Barbadians how it intends to fix the matter. Will they be underwriting the cost of counselling for those children who require it? Will it be disclosing how it intends to deal with such research processes going forward? Will the loan facility from the bank to Barbados be impacted because the survey was curtailed?
The IDB has a long history of financing many important projects in Barbados and across the region. Its regional headquarters is also situated in Barbados. However, despite 63 years of good work in the region, the stigma and distrust that are now attached to the name of the IDB will not be easily erased.
Just as the bank was swift and decisive in its removal of Mauricio Claver-Carone from the presidency for unethical behaviour, it must address this ethical breach committed against our children.
First-form students, who have just transferred from the carefree life of primary school where they were sheltered and coddled and emerged from two years of disruption and social displacement caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, should not have had this “survey” thrust on them.
On its website, the IDB declares: “We are the leading source of development financing for Latin America and the Caribbean. We provide loans, grants, and technical assistance; and we conduct extensive research.
“We maintain a strong commitment to achieving measurable results and the highest standards of integrity, transparency, and accountability.”
We insist that “integrity, transparency, and accountability” have all been lacking in this entire fiasco.
As Prime Minister Mia Mottley weighed in on the raging national debate, she has made it clear that Barbadian children are not be used as “guinea pigs”. That is exactly how parents perceived their children were used by the IDB. That the survey, with several intrusive questions, was deliberately disguised.
In an age of mushrooming conspiracy theories, many people can easily lose confidence in the IDB and the Ministry of Education, which they believed failed as the institutional and protective barrier between these young students and researchers who wanted specific information from Barbadian children without considering how it might impact them.
The post #BTEditorial – A crisis of confidence in IDB, Ministry appeared first on Barbados Today.