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Of all the forces driving the Latin American and Caribbean economies today, globalization is certainly the most prominent and visible one, and the Multilateral Investment Fund ('MIF') puts itself at the very core of the globalization process in Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries. Perhaps no other regional financial institutions in the Latin American and Caribbean region stands so clearly at the dividing line between the so-called 'developed world' and the so-called 'developing world', between the private sector and the public sector, between financial, economic, and environmental realities on the one hand, and government policy aims on the other. The MIF is thus in a unique position to take the lead, thanks to its statutory mission and pragmatic approach to such issues as the promotion of financially sound and profitable projects for marginalized rural communities, and the providing of advisory services to business associations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), foundations, public sector agencies and financial institutions and, in some circumstances, private sector companies. Moreover, all these issues are at the busy crossroads of the globalization process in the Latin American and Caribbean region, where the MIF is already a key player as it has always operated via partnership arrangements with other international financial organizations of the Inter-American Development Bank Group. This paper will deal the subject from an international legal perspective, beginning with some preliminary remarks on the role of foreign private investments in the economic development of the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries. It will then explore the role of the MIF in supplying low-income populations of the American and Caribbean region with the instruments to promote their incomes and livelihoods through better access to markets and the skills to compete in those markets, access to fundamental services, including green technology, and access to microfinance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]