The Inter-American Development Bank Group has launched the eighth edition of Superheroes of Development to recognize clients and executing agencies that have overcome significant challenges while implementing development projects. 

The contest showcases transformative experiences that yield lessons that can improve people’s lives and realities in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Superheroes of Development, a BIDAcademy initiative, highlights projects with relevant and replicable experiences. The winning teams will show how they turned lessons from project implementation into effective tools for overcoming challenges and maximising development impact.

“The Superheroes of Development contest underscores our commitment to operational excellence and collective learning. By celebrating these teams, we amplify what’s working and allow others to learn from what they already know, strengthening our capacity as a region,” said Lorena Rodríguez Bu, Chief of the IDB Knowledge and Learning Division.

The contest honours our executing partners and clients in two categories:

• Category 1: IDB and IDB Lab projects that are currently in progress (with at least an initial disbursement) or have ended since January 2016. IDB projects must have a Project Completion Report (PCR).
• Category 2: IDB Invest Projects with an Expanded Supervision Report (XSR) that is completed or currently being drafted. This report contains IDB Invest’s internal final evaluation of the project, which is validated by the IDB Office of Evaluation and Oversight.

Teams interested in participating must fill out the online form on the contest’s homepage, where the rules and regulations are also posted. The IDB will share the winning stories throughout the region. The six finalist projects will be invited to an awards ceremony at the IDB headquarters in Washington DC. The 2024 contest received 149 submissions from 26 countries in the region, and the winning teams were from Colombia and Honduras.