Book Launch: Development Banks and Sustainability in the Andean Amazon

In the new book “Development Banks and Sustainability in the Andean Amazon,” authors Rebecca Ray, Kevin P. Gallagher, and Cynthia A. Sanborn explore what development banks, governments, and communities have learned in the last decade of careful negotiation between social and environmental protections in the Andean Amazon, and the pressures of surging infrastructure and the boom in development.

While mega-dams, highways, and ports are filling up the pipelines of planners, the national governments of Andean and Amazon-basin countries and major development banks have enacted ambitious social and environmental protections. The book traces the development of social and environmental protections after years of struggle by affected communities, going beyond official policies to discover how these reforms work in practice, and whether they are enough to stem the risks of infrastructure mega-projects. As Chinese public banks expand in the region, the book also demonstrates that there is risk of governments undercutting their own standards. By contrast, this book shows that making infrastructure work for everyone involved requires mutually reinforcing networks of support and accountability among communities, governments and development banks.

Published by Fondo Editorial de la Universidad del Pacífico, the book is also available in Spanish.

Join the GDP Center and Universidad del Pacífico for the webinar book launch and discussion on Tuesday, January 26, with simultaneous English-Spanish and Spanish-English translation available:

Moderator:

• Cynthia A. Sanborn, Principal Professor of the Department of Social and Political Sciences, Universidad del Pacífico

Speakers:

• Rebecca Ray, Senior Researcher, Global Development Policy Center
• Juan Luis Dammert, Latin America Director, Natural Resource Governance Institute
• Betty Espinoza, Research Professor, Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO) Ecuador
• Kevin P. Gallagher, Director, Global Development Policy Center; Professor of Global Development Policy, Boston University
• René Gomez-García, Senior Executive, Development Bank of Latin America

STARTS:

8:00 AM EST on Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2021

ENDS:

9:00 AM EST on Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2021

LOCATION:

Via Zoom

REGISTER:

https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMvfu-upz0oG9H1uPBwpmDngquoRwMkW9Nb