The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation have signed an agreement to work together to promote actions and initiatives that help develop high-impact entrepreneurship in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The two parties signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) during Global Entrepreneurship Week, celebrated Nov. 17-23, 2008.
The Kauffman Foundation, one of the founding sponsors of the Week, is the largest foundation in the United States devoted to entrepreneurship. Based in Kansas City, Mo., the Kauffman Foundation is globally known as a source of excellence in advancing entrepreneurship to improve economic welfare.
“Entrepreneurship can play a pivotal role in social mobility and economic development in our region,” said IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno. “Entrepreneurs’ embrace of innovation has concrete benefits for any country’s bottom line as entrepreneurs use innovations to improve the quality of life, create new qualified and sustainable jobs, improve the country’s position in global economic competition, create economic growth and new wealth for reinvestment.”
Under the MOU, the IDB and the Kauffman Foundation agree to disseminate the benefits of entrepreneurship and related topics, promote innovative solutions to entrepreneurial development benefits, and work in the design and adoption of friendly policies toward entrepreneurship and innovation.
"The world and local economies will benefit from having more high-impact entrepreneurs, which is the intent of Global Entrepreneurship Week and of our collaboration with the Inter-American Development Bank,” said Carl J. Schramm, president and CEO of the Kauffman Foundation. “We are pleased to be partnering with the IDB to advance discussions of what governments can do to promote high-impact enterprises."
