It has been said that the Bank should not try to be all things to all clients. Education is too important to do poorly. Second, and perhaps even more critical, the Bank and the IDB must be collectors and sharers of knowledge. The two banks are uniquely well situated to ensure best practice and best results are disseminated effectively to others and put to work. The Bank has made great strides toward these objectives since granting the first loan for education in 1963.
Education is largely and rightly a task for individual nations to finance.
But as the Bank as shown, international institutions can make a big difference. But we need to do more. In addition, work has begun at the IDB on devising a Special Fund for Hemispheric Education to meet the particular challenges which educating this region presents. Educating our people is the central challenge of our time. The desirability of the goals is not in question.