Market Development

The “Program to Support Social Protection Reforms I and II” aimed to help the Government of Honduras reduce extreme poverty through policy measures. It focused on financial sustainability, efficiency in social protection, and institutional coordination. The program included two operations executed in 2018 and 2019, targeting improvements in health, education, and social protection services.

The program significantly reduced extreme poverty in Honduras by allocating 15.5% of the Solidarity and Social Protection Fund to the Better Life Voucher program, surpassing the 10% target. It expanded decentralized health services to 94 of the poorest municipalities, reducing maternal mortality rates, and integrated third-cycle education services into the national budget, with 25% of schools managed by the Ministry of Education. The program covered up to 310,000 households with the Better Life Voucher program, improving targeting through updated algorithms and socioeconomic data. Health compliance for 62.65% of participants was verified via the National Vaccination System. A new poverty measurement methodology was implemented, reducing moderate poverty to 42.7% and extreme poverty to 22.9%. Additionally, data sharing among social sector entities improved with four inter-institutional agreements, enhancing the efficiency and sustainability of Honduras’s social protection system.

This project will help reduce the housing deficit in Ecuador by providing mortgage loans for affordable housing through intermediate financial institutions.

The project’s overall impact is to increase access to Public-Interest Housing (PIH) for families with the ability to pay by providing mortgage loan solutions. Among other outcomes and impacts, the project placed US$300 million of PIH loans through private banks and local entities between 2019-2022. It also increased the percentage of women over 15 with an active mortgage loan to 6%. In addition, it increased the value-added in construction activities in the PIH segment to US$68.2 million between 2020-2022, while increasing mortgage loans for PIH in relation to total mortgage loans to 12.6% over the same period.

This project will promote reforms towards a more productive and healthier ocean in Bahamas through several aspects of the Blue Economy: promoting MSMEs, digitalization and blue bond financing, while improving resilience through enhanced climate risk management in coastal and offshore areas, including better management of marine resources and reducing marine pollution.  

The reforms included in this program will benefit firms operating in the Blue Economy by improving the business and investment climate for ocean related economic activities, and by promoting better management practices that improve the sustainability of marine resources that those firms harvest. This will also benefit Bahamian citizens and firms by promoting reforms that will reduce marine pollution. Among other outcomes and impacts, the reforms supported  249 MSMEs in the Blue Economy, and 1,666 employees benefitting from them. Likewise, the Ocean Health Index (OHI) increased to 85.5, while the Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing Index decreased to 1.97, as the annual revenue from flat fishing licenses and permits issuance increased to US$154,000.