Interactive: Exploring IDB's project pipeline

Different development donors have different manners of releasing information on their early-stage projects. While many offer interactive visualizations and machine-readable databases of current and past operations, interventions, and financed projects, few create the same tools for their pipeline of projects under consideration. But many do release pipeline data containing valuable information — some in more useful formats, some in less. At the more transparent end of the spectrum, the United States Agency for International Development has its Business Forecast, which is highly accessible as a real-time spreadsheet and searchable web portal. Others, such as the World Bank, African Development Bank, and Inter-American Development Bank, have a searchable database with regularly released PDF documents summarizing their pipelines. Others offer no formalized early-stage project information — newly approved projects may be announced ad hoc in press releases, or through board meeting notes, or not at all. Devex has previously analyzed the project pipelines of the World Bank and USAID. Now, we want to extend that analysis to another donor that makes a strong effort to be transparent about upcoming projects: the Inter-American Development Bank. Similar to the World Bank, IDB regularly publishes its project pipeline in “Monthly Operational Summary” PDF documents. Generally, they release each month’s MOS within one or two weeks of the close of the month. Projects in the IDB MOS remain there until approved by the IDB Board of Directors, passed on for approval by beneficiary governments and, eventually, procurement and implementation. Here, we take a look at projects from the October and November MOS documents to see which major projects are in the pipeline, and what the aggregate pipeline data can tell us about the bank’s priorities. New and approved projects IDB’s November MOS contains 92 pipeline projects worth a total of $13.27 billion, with projects in 21 Latin American countries and 17 different sectors, as well as regional projects and a few classified under a “miscellaneous” sector. This most recent MOS also includes 24 newer projects added to the pipeline in either October or November worth $5.9 billion. These projects represent new opportunities that will, most likely, rest in the pipeline for one to two years as the IDB prepares them. Once approved by the IDB Board of Directors, they will be assigned the status “approval completed” in a future MOS before being removed from the pipeline, and moving on to procurement and implementation. For this reason, the preparation time that a project spends in the IDB MOS is also when implementers interested in this project can be preparing to pursue it on approval. When projects are revised, it is an indication that they may be moving closer to approval. For example, in October, a Bolivian roadway infrastructure project was revised, and subsequently approved in November. The addition of a known executing agency is also a good sign as it may indicate political will to see the project implemented in the beneficiary country. Eleven projects worth $1.47 billion were approved in October — and consequently did not appear in the November MOS. An additional 17 projects worth $1.33 billion were recently approved in November. Where are projects planned for? Geographically, Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina have the largest country pipelines — with $3.99 billion, $2.12 billion, and $1.19 billion in planned projects, respectively. These include a broad range of projects, including two new “super-projects:” a $2.4 billion credit line to Brazil for sustainable investment projects (60 percent of the country’s pipeline); and a $1.2 billion loan to Mexico (57 percent of the country’s pipeline) to strengthen institutions and infrastructure in municipalities. There are also two large but smaller projects of interest for their innovative qualities: first, a collaborative $1.5 billion project (with $600 million from IDB) between the bank and FINEP, a Brazilian entity, to support SME and corporate investment in innovation in key sectors — effectively creating an innovation investment fund for the country. Second, a $600 million land management project in Mexico aiming to use land governance to mitigate climate change. Argentina has four new projects as of November, mostly focused on infrastructure and governance in the Buenos Aires province, but they also had several recently approved projects in October and November that will shortly move toward procurement. This includes two large water projects: one for $200 million in the northern provinces through Plan Belgrano, in collaboration with the government and the World Bank; and another for the Buenos Aires urban area worth $305 million. However, many of Latin America’s smaller nations are not ignored in the IDB pipeline. Honduras has more than $800 million in pipeline projects, including a new $500 million agroforestry project; Colombia has a $300 million national energy project; and Panama has a $250 million water and sanitation project in Panama City, to name a few examples. Which sectors are projects planned for? Finance was the most funded sector in the November MOS with $3.2 billion in pipeline funding — although 99 percent of that comes from three newly added projects, including the $2.4 billion credit line to Brazil mentioned before. Public sector management is the second most funded sector with $2.4 billion, again largely buoyed by $1.3 billion in new projects, including the $1.2 Mexican municipalities project. In addition, a large $238 million public governance project was approved in Ecuador in November, meaning it will shortly be moving toward procurement stages. After these two sectors, power and energy is the third most funded, with high-value projects focused on national energy infrastructure and policy in Colombia ($300 million), Brazil ($276 million), Mexico ($200 million), Honduras ($150 million), and Ecuador ($150 million). Water and sanitation was also a large sector of focus, with $1 billion in pipeline projects, even after removing the two high-value water projects in Argentina mentioned in the last section. Panama ($250 million), Brazil ($200 million), and Bolivia ($154 million) all have large allocations to this sector in the pipeline. Transportation has $1.16 billion in pipeline projects, not including $243 million in projects under the separately classified sector “Roadways.” This includes a new roadway infrastructure project in Buenos Aires for $200 million. It also includes two recently approved projects: one to build a tunnel at Agua Negra on the Chile-Argentina border for $280 million, and one to improve the primary road network in Bolivia for $60 million. All these details and projects can be explored in our interactive visualization of the IDB’s pipeline. Perform you own analysis to start preparing your teams for upcoming projects funded by the IDB across Latin America, and stay tuned for further updates to our analysis and visualizations on a quarterly basis.