IDB Annual Meetings in Chile
Chile hosted the sixty-fifth Annual Meetings of the Boards of Governors of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and IDB Invest, held from March 26 to 30, 2025.
The Board of Governors, the highest authority in the IDB Group’s governance structure, brought together participants from Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe, North America, and Asia. Governors from the Bank’s 48 member countries attended—mostly Ministers of Economy, Finance, and Treasury—who reviewed IDB operations and made key decisions regarding the institution’s political direction.
Chile’s Ministry of Finance announced that the 2025 Annual Meetings were held under the theme “Believe, Create, and Grow,” with a focus on regional integration, sustainability, sustainable investments, and energy transition, highlighting lithium and green hydrogen projects.
The Working Group on IDB, a coalition of civil society organizations and social movements calling for the Bank’s accountability, attended the event to demand responsibility and to advocate for a truly just energy transition—one that does not harm communities’ livelihoods, health, or environment.
The official sessions, plenaries, committee meetings, and signing ceremonies were held in Santiago, at the Estación Mapocho Cultural Center. In addition, the IDB organized a series of thematic seminars where stakeholders and partners discussed and exchanged knowledge on key issues relevant to Latin America and the Caribbean.
For the first time, prior to the main gathering in Santiago, a set of official on-site activities took place in the city of Punta Arenas, known for its role in the development of « green » energy such as green hydrogen. According to Finance Minister Mario Marcel, the goal was to innovate in how the event was conducted by taking some participants to the southernmost region in the world for meetings with Chilean and international investors.
However, this program excluded civil society organizations and communities potentially affected by energy transition projects in the region. This exclusion was especially significant given the impact such initiatives can have on local territories and the urgent need to ensure inclusive dialogue spaces and respect for the rights of local communities.
About the Working Group on IDB
The Working Group on IDB is a coalition of numerous civil society organizations from across the region and internationally, focused on advocacy toward the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). Many of these organizations have over 30 years of experience monitoring Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs), providing strategic value through their technical and institutional knowledge. The group operates in nearly every country in the region and addresses a wide range of intersecting issues, including human rights, gender, disability, Indigenous peoples, biodiversity, climate change, the Amazon, and watersheds. Its recommendations and actions are grounded in close monitoring of specific projects, working alongside communities affected by IDB-financed initiatives. Several member organizations also support claimants engaging with accountability mechanisms such as the IDB’s Independent Consultation and Investigation Mechanism
Alternative Event on Just Energy Transition
As part of the IDB Annual Meeting in Chile, the Working Group organized an event at the University of Chile in Santiago to discuss the urgent need for a Just Energy Transition (JET) in Latin America and the Caribbean, in light of the region’s socioeconomic, environmental, and geopolitical challenges. The event analyzed the role of the IDB and other International Financial Institutions (IFIs), with a particular focus on Chile’s green hydrogen industry and critical minerals mining. Participants explored strategies to avoid a new cycle of extractive dependency and to ensure a fair and sustainable transition.
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Interventions at the meetings
Nadia Boscarol, from Fundación Humedales and a member of the IDB Working Group, participated in the IDB Civil Society and Stakeholder Forum held during the Bank’s Annual Meeting in Chile (March 2025). Nadia was a panelist in the session “Investing in Nature: Leveraging Biodiversity for Sustainable Development,” where she highlighted some of the main challenges the IDB must address to reduce the negative impacts of its projects on affected communities, sharing examples from Paraguay, Honduras, and Argentina.
During meetings between the IDB Working Group and officials from the Inter-American Development Bank, members of the Working Group raised key concerns about various Bank policies. In the session dedicated to the new Access to Information Policy, Carolina Juaneda (Bank Information Center), Brent Milikan (GT Infraestrutura), and Suhayla Bazbaz (Cohesión Comunitaria e Innovación Social), among others, highlighted limitations related to resources, accessibility, and the quality of information available to communities. In another meeting focused on ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) issues, Mario Paniagua (Fundación Tierra) questioned the consultation processes implemented by the IDB to assess the anticipated impacts of its projects.
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Messages from Working Group members and communities to the IDB
Brenda Gutiérrez, a member of the Chango People, raised her voice during the IDB Annual Meetings in Chile to denounce the impacts of green hydrogen and ammonia projects on her territory in Taltal, which are harming health, livelihoods, the sea, and artisanal fishing. The IDB is financing several of these supposedly “green” projects in the Antofagasta region without consulting the communities who live there.
Marcela Mella, environmental defender and spokesperson for the No Alto Maipo Citizens’ Coalition, shares her experience of nearly 20 years of resistance against the Alto Maipo Hydroelectric Project (PHAM), financed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). She reflects on the responsibility that development banks have to ensure a responsible exit when they withdraw funding from a project.
Mobilization Against the IDB in Punta Arenas
From March 26 to 30, 2025, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and IDB Invest held their Green Investment Forum for Latin America and the Caribbean in Punta Arenas, Chile, highlighting the region’s strategic role in green hydrogen projects financed by both entities. The event, which gathered around 200 participants behind closed doors—including government officials, executives from transnational corporations, and representatives from international organizations—was presented under the narrative of a sustainable and collaborative energy transition.
However, communities and civil society organizations mobilized outside the hotel where the meetings took place to denounce these destructive investments, promoted without consultation or consent, which prioritize the interests of transnational corporations over the rights of local populations.
In light of this reality, communities and organizations are demanding a truly just energy transition—one that respects the free, prior, and informed consent of peoples, guarantees direct benefits for communities, and promotes small-scale economic models. They also call for equitable access to energy and decent jobs for women and historically marginalized groups, ensuring the transition does not reproduce the violence of extractivism.
In response to the meetings in Punta Arenas, ACUE and several Chilean organizations organized a virtual Counter-Forum on “green” investments in Latin America and the Caribbean, aimed at communities resisting mega-energy industries in the region. The space was created to build solidarity, strengthen collective organizing, and jointly design strategies to confront these extractive projects. Recordings of the first and second sessions are available.
The group held a meeting with IDB President Ilan Goldfajn and Larry Sacks, where they discussed the Bank’s role in ensuring that the voices and recommendations of civil society and communities affected by IDB projects are meaningfully included. During the meeting, the group presented a set of requirements for the hiring of a person responsible for strengthening civil society engagement, a position titled Operations Principal Specialist – Head, Civil Society.
