Annual Meetings
At the 2008 G20 summit, world leaders recognized the need for a concerted and coordinated response to the economic and financial crisis, and to move towards a sustainable recovery and long-term growth path. Latin America and the Caribbean, however, lacked an adequate institutional mechanism, as well as instruments to tackle long-term common development challenges at the regional level.
As a response, the Regional Finance Ministers agreed to hold an annual policy dialogue to discuss selected long-term development issues that are common to the region and hold the potential to promote economic integration and cooperation. That was the birth of the Annual Meetings of Finance Ministers of the Americas and the Caribbean, also known as RFM Meetings.
The RFM Meetings are attended by Finance Ministers of 34 countries in the Americas and the Caribbean, as well as heads of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank (WB), and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). In addition, regional partner institutions such as the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF), and the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) have been represented at previous editions. By virtue of being a closed meeting, the RFM Annual Meetings have become an important forum for open, strategic, and in-depth discussions on the collective regional future.
The RFM process is supported by a Technical Secretariat, coordinated by the Integration and Trade Sector (INT) of the IDB.
Altogether 9 meetings have taken place so far, organized by Mexico (2008), Chile (2009), Peru (2010), Canada (2011), Colombia (2013 and 2014, both held in Washington DC), Peru (2015), Paraguay (2016, held in Washington DC), and Argentina (October 11, 2017, held in Washington DC).