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Poverty Reduction Strategy in Honduras

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In Honduras, a Strategy for the Reduction of the Poverty (SRP) was approved on August 20, 2001. The goal was to significantly reduce the poverty rate from 70% to 40% by 2015. SRP was a continuation of the Master Plan of the Reconstruction and National Transformation.

Contents

SRP made an annual investment of 4.4 million lempiras (Honduras currency) which was distributed in roughly 300 million lempiras allotments to each of 18 departments in Honduras. These funds supported various projects designed to benefit different communities and society in general. These resources were made available thanks to the transparency of the project, and the website of the SRP for the supervision fiscalisation by all the civil society.

Strategies

SRP covers the following areas:

Education & Literacy: The SRP's aim was that 70% of Honduran children would complete at least their third year of secondary education by 2015.

Diet & Nutrition:

  • Reduce child malnutrition
  • Provide access to potable water for 95% of the population.

    • Communication:

  • Provide electricity to 80% of the general population
  • Secure at least 15 fixed-line telephones per 100 inhabitants.

    • Quality of Life:

  • Reach a 0.77 in the Index of relative Human Development the equality of gender.
  • Protect at least 20% of the country's forests

    • Finance

    The strategy to reduce poverty consisted of an investment of US $2,666 million (53 billion of Lempiras) distributed over 15 years. That is, four billion lempiras distributed annually, with roughly 300 million lempiras given to each department to help reduce poverty.

    SRP's funding comes from the following sources:

  • Part of the national budget.
  • Income by privatizations.
  • Additional resources of the national budget.

    • An SRP Advisory board helped determine which projects aimed at poverty reduction would be funded. The following methodology was used to select the funded projects:

  • 1. 55% in projects of productive reflation.
  • 2. 35% in social projects: education, health, and culture.
  • 3. 10% in projects of institutional development and Gober Nabil dad.

    • SRP supervisors are representatives from:

  • Social Cabinet of the Executive Power.
  • Advisory board for the Reduction of the Poverty
  • Fund for the Reduction of the Poverty (FRP)
  • The Unit of Technical Support (UNAT)
  • The National System of Evaluation of the Management (SINEG)
  • National Institute of Statistics (INE)
  • Unit of Program of Efficiency and Transparency (UPET)
  • Instances decentralized, municipal and departmental (what does this mean?)
  • Private institutions and NGOs.

    • SRP Evolution and Critics

    In 2011, SRP was criticized because the annual investment of 4 billion lempiras did not reduce poverty. In fact, poverty diminished less under SRP than it did in the 1990s, when there was no such program.

    In 2011, poverty affected 60% of the population. In 2012, despite an injection of L 300 million annually to address this issue, poverty levels rose to 65%. Some believe SRP funds vanished and were never used on programs designed to aid the poor. Many people believe SRP was a failure.

    Transparency

    The SRP Web site provided access to all the financial contributions made to each department. But in 2010, the SRP website was shut down and since then, the population does not have access to the financial information.

    References

    Poverty Reduction Strategy in Honduras Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA