In just its first year, América en el Centro—the IDB Group’s regional program for Central America, Panama, and the Dominican Republic—has moved from vision to action.
With 12 approved operations totaling US$2.2 billion and US$5.4 million mobilized in technical cooperation grants, the program is already delivering tangible results across the region.
This study presents the results of an experimental evaluation of a pedagogical intervention based on the mobile application Quechua Collao, designed to strengthen Quechua language skills as a second language among primary and secondary school students in public schools with an Intercultural Bilingual Education (IBE) approach in Peru. The intervention combined the use of the app with a structured pedagogical guide and specialized teacher support.
This paper studies socioeconomic disparities in Mexico based on sexual orientation and gender identity using data from a nationally representative survey collected between 2021 and 2022 (N44,189). It finds pronounced levels of self-reported discrimination and rejection among LGBTQ individuals throughout their lives. It also estimates that these groups rates of labor force participation and unemployment diverge from those of their heterosexual and cisgender counterparts. Additionally, a heterogeneity analysis provides novel insights into nuanced disparities within LGBTQ groups.
Using census data from over 500,000 dual-earner households in Mexico, we show that couples in which the wife earns just above half of the household income are far less common than those in which she earns just below that threshold a pattern that has been attributed to gender norms that create an aversion to wives outearning their husbands. This gap is two to five times larger than documented in the United States and Northern Europe and has grown over the 20002015 period.
In its 2026 edition, The State of Education in Latin America and the Caribbean, the biennial publication of the Information Center for the Improvement of Learning (CIMA), focuses on the territorial dimension as a structural component for understanding how education systems function and for supporting the design of more contextualized, targeted, and evidence-based education policies.
This paper evaluates a randomized remote tutoring program implemented in Paraguay, targeting 1,650 students in grades four through six with low baseline performance in Spanish language. The intervention provided two weekly 30-minute one-on-one tutoring sessions over the phone for eight weeks, using a differentiated instruction model tailored to students initial diagnostic assessments. Treated students showed significant learning gains: those offered tutoring scored 0.11 standard deviations higher on standardized language tests compared to controls.
This study presents the results of an experimental evaluation of a pedagogical intervention based on the mobile application Quechua Collao, designed to strengthen Quechua language skills as a second language among primary and secondary school students in public schools with an Intercultural Bilingual Education (IBE) approach in Peru. The intervention combined the use of the app with a pedagogical guide and teacher support.
The series of Skills for Life (S4L) briefs "Hidden in Plain Sight" provides clear, data-driven snapshots of the prevalence of different disabilities and disorders among school-age children in Latin America and the Caribbean, using the Global Burden of Disease estimated prevalence rates contrasting these with administrative data from the education systems. The briefs are designed for policymakers, ministry teams, and education practitioners seeking actionable insights to strengthen inclusion, early detection, and support students.
In its 2026 edition, The State of Education in Latin America and the Caribbean, the biennial publication of the Information Center for the Improvement of Learning (CIMA), focuses on the territorial dimension as a structural component for understanding how education systems function and for supporting the design of more contextualized, targeted, and evidence-based education policies.
The document series “Life Skills”, titled “The Hidden Numbers,” provides clear, data-driven snapshots of the prevalence of different disabilities and disorders among school-age children in Latin America and the Caribbean. It uses estimated prevalence rates from the Global Burden of Disease and contrasts them with administrative data from educational systems. The documents are designed for policymakers, ministerial teams, and education professionals seeking practical information to strengthen inclusion, early detection, and support for students.