IDB – Key Partner for Central America and the Dominican Republic

The transformation of regional social policy has been a prominent contribution aimed at reducing poverty

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) supports Central American countries and the Dominican Republic in facing challenges such as regional integration, prevention and mitigation of natural disasters, and social protection, among others.

During 2011 the IDB approved 26 sovereign-guaranteed operations with a total value of $1.24 billion for this group of countries.

With the support of the IDB, the coverage of conditional cash transfers in Honduras – called Bono 10,000 - was increased during 2011, and reaching a 60 % coverage for households at poverty level was set as a goal for the year 2013. In Guatemala an impact assessment of the conditional cash transfers program Mi Familia Progresa was carried out.

Panama kept up its efforts to improve its own conditional cash transfers program, Red de Oportunidades, its most extended social program, which covers all 621 districts of the country, reaching 75,000 households in extreme poverty. Similarly, family and community health programs were approved for highly vulnerable populations of the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua. In El Salvador, the Ciudad Mujer project was boosted, vulnerability in San Salvador settlements was reduced, and 18 health centers were refurbished, among other actions.

In the area of State reform and modernization, the governments of Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica launched comprehensive tax reforms, together with efforts to improve fiscal management and increase the efficiency of public spending.

In Costa Rica, a loan will support measures to prevent violence and promote social inclusion. Its government will establish an agency to manage knowledge on violence prevention, which may serve as a model for other countries in the region.

Energy became a key issue in the region’s political and economic agenda, as did public security, an area that poses huge challenges.

Several regional initiatives were assigned higher priority last year, including Project Mesoamerica-Pacific Corridor, Salud Mesoamérica 2015 (SM2015), the Regional Security Strategy through the International Conference Supporting the Central American Security Strategy, and the Consulting Group for the Reconstruction and Development of Central America.