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Inter-American Development Bank

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A noble mission that fades away in an ocean of bureaucracy - Anonymous employee Inter-American Development Bank Employee Review

3.0
27 Apr 2016
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Investing in Latin America and the Caribbean with the goal of reducing poverty and inequality, by improving infrastructure, access to education and health services, so on and so forth. For staff members (not consultant/contractual personnel) there is a generous benefits package, specifically their health insurance (for employee and dependants) and pension fund. Vacation time - you can accumulate up to 24 vacation days (without including weekends or holidays) per year and roll them over (up to 12 vacation days) to the following year.

Cons

Bureaucracy, bureaucracy, bureaucracy... Did I say bureaucracy? Procedures are painfully cumbersome. To get anything approved (project, transaction, etc.) you need: long documents (that frankly very few people read), the sign off of "experts" and "specialists" and tons of Committees. Personnel recruitment and human talent management is a joke! While there are certainly excellent professionals, there is no shortage of incompetent employees that keep their jobs thanks to "other skills" and/or relationships. Depending on the organizational unit (some are very good, some are a disaster), it might not be a good place for entry-level professionals in that they are not going to learn skills that can be useful in the real world.

Explore other reviews about Inter-American Development Bank

5.0
28 May 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Excellent benefits, culture and opportunity to make a real impact.

Cons

There is bureaucracy across the organization. Vertical career progression can be slow.

2.0
3 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

You get to work with elitist Spanish speaking Latin Americans who are xenophobic for people that speak other languages, who have processes, paper pushing and career progression as major objective, not real development outcomes (eradicate extreme poverty & improve quality of life in LAC).

Cons

Bureaucracy. Outdated development agency. Abusive to and misclassifying contractors. People who don’t know what they are doing or talking about. Delivers trash projects and pulls impoverished countries further into national debt. Technocratic and too much focus on metrics, not impoverished people’s lived experience.

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