Fiscal year 2003, Latin America & Caribbean region has really increased their knowledge sharing with the release of En Breve, a monthly new letter that high lights successful current projects. It has received high praise as a helpful tool for Task Managers to see what their colleagues are doing. It is sent to all the LCR field offices, as well as distributed to all staff.

The Region has spruced up their Internet, with local field offices having their own sites. The Brazil website has had over 130,000 hits in March 2003 alone from their clients, showing the real need there had been for this knowledge.

Early in 2003, the Bank learned that the regional Spanish language website was voted by Yahoo! in Spanish, as the BEST SITE OF 2002!

Since there has been much demand by Bank staff to have information at their fingertips, Intranet sites are also being started, updated, or altogether redone. One the most useful sites for operational staff is the regional Procurement page. Staff have quick access to all the guidelines, policies and procedures as well as the forms for their clients in English, Spanish and Portuguese.

Since September 11, 2001, the number of videoconferences in the region has tripled. With this increase the need for more staff to know how to use the equipment has grown dramatically, so trainings are being offered about six times a year, and a website has been created. The site has room numbers, with their capacity, a link to all the field office VC Coordinators, and the most frequently hit link is to a page with directions on how to use the equipment. The information on this site helps speed up the process of requesting a videoconference.

In Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development Sector Management Unit (LCSES), they have brought together two major environmental programs: the Meso- American Biological Corridor which seeks to strengthen regional coordination mechanisms of the countries in Central America and the Brazil Rain Forest Pilot program. The latter working particularly in the Atlantic Rain Forest on coordination of policies among several states, private sectors, and other key players. The Bank staff from both teams started with an informal dialogue to exchange the experiences on the innovative operations in Central America and the Brazilian Atlantic Forest and to assist teams in improving their work on conservation projects. The groups are planning the next dialogues with site visits by their counterparts later this year.

The region has also been active in publishing documents for the public. One such document was written after the Annual Bank Conference on Development in Latin America and the Caribbean (ABCD –LAC 8). The report, “Closing the Gap in Education and Technology” has theme of countries needing to increase their skill and technology levels in order to increase their productivity. According to the Regional Vice President, Mr. David de Ferranti, “this is essential to improving growth prospects” which is part of the Bank’s mission.