- A Viable Future for Small Farmers?
- Fighting Rural Poverty in Central America
- Strengthening the Capacity to Improve Food Security in South Asia
- IFPRI Updates Its Strategy for a Changing World
- Interview with Kemal Dervis, Administrator, United Nations Development Programme
- Linking Agriculture and Health
- What Will It Take for Africa to Achieve the MDGs?
- Commentary: Is Agriculture Still Important for Economic Development and Poverty Reduction?
IFPRI ForumCentral America made the headlines worldwide when the U.S. Congress passed the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) on July 27, 2005. Despite a growing consensus that CAFTA will benefit the region, the ratification process fueled a heated debate concerning its effects on the vulnerable populations of the region (up to 70 percent of Central American peoples live in poverty). These discussions highlighted the economic challenges Central American countries face. The problems of uneven economic growth; highly unequal asset distribution; un-acceptably high rates of poverty, hunger, and malnutrition; and environmental degradation are particularly acute in Central America's rural areas, home to 60-80 percent of the region's poor.
Although IFPRI has many longstanding research projects in Central America, establishing the Central America program marks a new type of engagement in the region. Through long-term policy research and capacity building, the program aims to generate the information needed to create solutions and design policy strategies for alleviating poverty and promoting rural development. "Such information is becoming increasingly valuable given current trends toward more open economies and growing pressure on the public sector to allocate investments in ways that result in lasting and sustainable solutions to the problem of rural poverty," says Hans Jansen, coordinator of IFPRI's Central America program.
The program targets issues of growth in rural areas, trade liberalization and globalization (focus of the CAFTA project, launched in June 2005), natural resource allocation, investment strategies, knowledge management systems, and governance. The region's three poorest countries-Nicaragua, Honduras, and Guatemala-are the program's primary focus.
Designed to support strong collaboration with regional partners, the program seeks to increase training and policy communication. IFPRI's main partner is the Regional Unit for Technical Assistance, host to IFPRI's office in San José. IFPRI also operates out of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture, conducting research on institutional change and innovation systems, science and technology management, and organization and management.
For more information on the Central America Program, go to www.ifpri.org/themes/camerica/camerica.htm, and on the CAFTA project, go to www.ifpri.org/themes/cafta/cafta.htm.