Brazil’s candidate wins IDB Presidency

President-elect of the Inter-American Development Bank, Ilan Goldfajn

Ilan Goldfajn was elected president of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) on Sunday during a Special Meeting of the Bank’s Board of Governors. The meeting was held at IDB Headquarters in Washington, D.C., with delegations attending virtually and in person, the hemispheric bank said in a statement.

Nominated by Brazil, Goldfajn will take office for a five-year term on December 19, 2022. He was nominated before incumbent Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was defeated by leftist Luis Inacio ‘Lula’ Da Silva in elections held earlier this month.

As president, Goldfajn will manage the operations and administration of the Bank, which works with the public sector of Latin America and the Caribbean. In addition, he will chair the Board of Executive Directors of the IDB and the Board of Executive Directors of IDB Invest, which works with the region’s private sector. The president also chairs the Donors Committee of IDB Lab, the Bank’s laboratory for innovative development projects.

The other candidates were Cecilia Todesca Bocco of Argentina, Gerard Johnson of Trinidad and Tobago, Gerardo Esquivel Hernández of Mexico and Nicolás Eyzaguirre Guzmán of Chile.

To be elected president, a candidate must receive a majority of the total voting power of the IDB’s member countries as well as the support of at least 15 of the 28 regional member countries (26 borrowing member countries, plus Canada and the United States). The IDB has a total of 48 member countries, with offices in all borrowing countries as well as in Europe and Asia.

The Board of Governors is the Bank’s highest authority. Each member country appoints a governor, whose voting power is proportional to the capital in the Bank subscribed by his or her country. Governors are typically finance ministers, central bank presidents, or other high-ranking economic authorities.

The Board of Governors holds annual meetings to review Bank operations and make key policy decisions. It also occasionally holds special meetings, including to elect a president.

Goldfajn will be the IDB’s seventh president. He follows Reina Irene Mejía Chacón a.i. (2022); Mauricio Claver-Carone (2020-2022); Luis Alberto Moreno (2005-2020); Enrique V. Iglesias (1988-2005); Antonio Ortiz Mena (1971-1988); and Felipe Herrera (1960-1971).

The then United States (US) Republican-led administration nominee for the Presidency of the IDB Mauricio Claver-Carone,  who had been unequivocally supported by Guyana, was fired in September by a majority vote  after an investigation showed the only American president in the bank’s 62-year history had an intimate relationship with a subordinate.