IDB Group Announces Winners of Superheroes of Development 2025

The Bank honors projects from Panama, Brazil, and Bolivia for overcoming implementation challenges and generating replicable lessons for the region.

WASHINGTON - Today the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) announced the winners of the eighth iteration of the Superheroes of Development contest. This initiative celebrates development projects that have overcome major implementation challenges, drawing lessons from their experience that can be replicated in other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Over its history, the contest has received more than 750 entries from 26 countries in the region, making it a key platform for identifying and showcasing effective solutions to development challenges.

Lorena Rodríguez Bu, chief of the IDB's Knowledge and Learning Division, said: "At the IDB, we believe in a virtuous cycle of knowledge and operations: evidence improves project design, and implementation leads to new lessons that feed into better decisions. That's the spirit behind Superheroes of Development: recognizing executing agencies and Bank clients that document what works and why, distill what they've learned, and offer these lessons for the entire region's benefit. Our goal is to take these lessons and turn them into action and impact."

The three winning projects, selected from among six finalists, are:

Panama: Sparks of Connection: Electrifying hope in Panama's remote communities / IDB. Executing agency: Ministry of the Presidency, Rural Electrification Office

In Panama, rural electrification was stagnating (78% coverage in 2017, with regions at 19% and 4%). The main obstacles were dense jungle, roads that became impassable in the rain, and places accessed only by river. "Sparks of Connection" created a new timeline and sequence for electrification projects based on topographic and climatic analyses. It moved work to open new power line segments to the dry season; established contingency plans for the winter; combined multimodal transportation (4x4s, boats, and helicopters), lightweight materials, and versatile equipment; and trained crews to operate in mud and rivers. By partnering with communities-hiring local guides, base camps, and advance supplies-it sped up travel and bolstered legitimacy. As a result, rural coverage rose to 93% in 2023, improving health, education, and livelihoods. The lesson from this project that can be replicated is to design based on climate and geography and turn beneficiaries into operational partners.

Brazil: Albert Einstein Hospital: Private management of public hospitals can save lives / IDB Invest

In 2020, Brazil recorded nearly 7 million cases of COVID-19 and 181,000 deaths from the virus. In response to this pressure, the Albert Einstein Israelite Hospital expanded its intensive care units, purchased equipment, adapted spaces, and hired staff. With financing from IDB Invest, it increased beds in three public hospitals in its network from 423 to 1,146 and from 592 to 626 in in two of its private hospitals. The Einstein network implemented flexible monitoring to track patients treated, occupancy, and mortality and make real-time adjustments. At the beginning of August 2020, mortality in the network's hospitals was 9.7% in public hospitals and 5.5% in private hospitals, compared to 38.5% and 19.5% nationwide. After the crisis, the network maintained more capacity than before: 818 public beds and 749 private beds.

Bolivia: Communities in Transformation: Self-management and financial inclusion / IDB Lab. Executing agency: Fundación PROFIN

In Bolivia, Bionegocios Guarayos transformed financial exclusion into self-management by creating self-managed entrepreneur groups as a gateway to seed capital and tailored financial education. Through these groups, more than 1,200 people (516 women and young people) learned to save, plan, and invest. They contributed 10-20% in matching funds and pooled resources. The program required them to undergo prior training, draw up contracts, and provide co-financing, which was key to aligning their commitments and reducing over-indebtedness. The program's constant technical presence on the ground allowed it to manage leadership changes and conflicts and strengthen 62 bio-businesses run by 270 entrepreneurs (64% women). The participants improved their recordkeeping, costs, and digital marketing and increased production by 20% or more. With the place-based brand "Bionegocios Guarayos," they solidified their governance and market access and preserved 400,000+ hectares of forest.