Buenos Aires. However, the list does not include projects that appear in the World Bank Projects section and that contain components in response to Covid-19 or that mention it when justifying or describing the project, such as Additional Financing for Supporting Effective Universal Health Coverage in Argentina or Urban Mobility in Metropolitan Buenos Aires for Economic Recovery. In this way, it is not clear what are the criteria that define when a project financed by these institutions is considered as a project “in response to COVID-19.” While it is positive that both the World Bank and the IDB, unlike other DFIs, have published specific sections within their web pages (in part due to the demands from civil society) providing information on their response to the pandemic, detailing which are the “COVID-19 Projects,” the truth is that such information is not yet accurate or reliable. Then, institutions such as CAF or CABEI have specific sections within their web pages with information on their actions and measures related to COVID-19, but they do not have lists of particular projects financed in response to the pandemic. Lastly, institutions such as FONPLATA, for example, do not even have specific sections on their web pages with information on the measures adopted by the institution in relation to COVID-19; much less do they have a list of financed projects. In addition, despite the fact that many of the “COVID-19 Projects” in the country mention the pandemic and the need to adopt measures to face it, as part of the justification for their approval, their approach to COVID-19 seems to be merely circumstantial. In other words, although the components contemplated in these projects can be considered measures that surely provide benefits to certain sectors in a context of socioeconomic crisis associated with the pandemic (as, by definition, any development project should), they do not appear to be measures specifically directed to face the main impacts of the pandemic by, for example, focusing the benefits on those sectors and populations in a vulnerable situation in consequence of the scourge. An example of this could be the Digital Inclusion and Innovation in Public Services in Argentina project financed by the World Bank, included in the list of Projects with support from IBRD and IDA, with components responding to COVID-19. The project mentions the pandemic that the country is going through as part of the contextualization and the arguments to justify the need for the undertaking, but the components and subcomponents of the project, whose main objective is “To improve the efficiency of and access to selected digital administrative services,” seem to address the consequences and impacts of the pandemic in a merely circumstantial way. In this sense, the question arises as to the justification of the approval of this type of projects in the way in which they are carried out (usually through fast disbursement windows justified by the context of the pandemic, which necessarily raise serious doubts and limitations regarding effective public participation and access to information) when their contributions to face the most important consequences of the pandemic, and to provide benefits to the sectors most impacted by it, are, as a minimum, uncertain. In relation to the above, the analysis of the project portfolio reflects the fact that there are major problems and shortcomings in terms of transparency and access to information regarding projects financed by DFIs in Argentina in the context of the pandemic. And this not only involves the banks that finance the projects but the Argentine government as well. In general, the existing information on approved projects is incomplete and insufficient and, in many cases, even non-existent. In the case of some banks such as the IDB or the World Bank, a good number of documents related to the projects can be found published on their websites; however, in many cases the documentation available is not complete, is only available in a single language (English or Spanish), or contains technical information that may not be understandable to the public. Moreover, in most cases, trying to request information that is not available on the banks’ websites, through their information request tools, ends up being ineffective. 24 DFIs FINANCING IN ARGENTINA DURING THE PANDEMIC: COVID-19 PROJECTS AND TRANSPARENCY SHORTCOMINGS

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