Belize Turns to IDB for $8 Million to Rein In Public Sector Costs

Belize’s National Assembly was presented with a resolution seeking approval for an eight-million-dollar loan from the Inter-American Development Bank to fund a project aimed at modernising management of the country’s civil service workforce.

According to the loan motion, the IDB’s Board of Directors approved the financing on June 26th to support the Support to Civil Service Modernisation Project. The project’s stated goal is to improve efficiency in the central government’s wage bill, with a specific focus on strengthening how public-sector employment is strategically managed.

The initiative will fund three main areas: expenditure control and workforce planning, digital transformation and data analytics for human resource management, and building institutional capacity for HR management across the central government.

The total project cost is estimated at nine million dollars, with the IDB providing eight million and the Government of Belize contributing the remaining one million in counterpart resources. The Ministry of Public Service and Disaster Risk Management will serve as the project’s executing agency.

Under the loan’s terms, Belize would have five years from the effective date of the contract to draw down the funds, with a twenty-five-year repayment period that includes a sixty-six-month grace period before principal repayment begins. Once repayment starts, it would be made in thirty-nine semi-annual instalments of roughly $205,128.21 each. Interest would be charged on the outstanding balance at a SOFR-based rate, with an additional credit fee of up to 0.75 per cent annually on any undisbursed portion of the loan.