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Contents  

Design and Elaboration

• World Bank and IMF

• Actors of Official Cooperation

• Organisations and Academics

Base Documents

• Government 

• Diverse actors of Official Cooperation 

• Civil Society

PRSP

• Official Government 

• Official Cooperation

• Local Civil Society

• Civil Society and Academics

Evaluations of the Implementation

• Official Government

• World Bank and IMF

• Actors of Official Cooperation

• Civil Society and Academics

This site monitors the development and implementation of the Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) in Nicaragua.  The site currently contains approximately 200 documents and articles concerning the design, elaboration, implementation, analysis, and evaluation of the PRS in Nicaragua.

The documents are chronologically ordered under a number of general theme headings from design to implementation and evaluation of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) in Nicaragua.  Within these general themes documents from the perspective of different agents and stakeholders involved in the process are also considered.  The documents are subsequently ordered by type of issuing organisation, date and alphabetical author - organisation.

The documents range from the Official advice on PRSP preparation from the IFIs to the Official PRSP of  the Nicaraguan Government (The Strengthened Strategy for Economic Growth and Poverty Reduction) to other documents and alternative analyses prepared by Civil Society Organisations in an attempt to influence the process and development of the PRS in Nicaragua.

The links on the left will take you to the table of contents and the broad theme categories which are subsequently broken down.  We hope that users find the site useful and informative and we welcome any suggestions on how to improve and update the site with other more recent contributions concerned with monitoring poverty and evaluation of the PRS in Nicaragua.

Overview of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Process in Nicaragua

April 2004

Nicaragua is not only the poorest country in Latin America, it is also one of the most indebted and aid dependent countries in the world.  Social indicators show the majority of the population living below the poverty line with deterioration during the 1990s in literacy rates, child malnutrition rates and in access to water and sanitation. Earlier structural adjustment policies of the International Financial Institutions (IFIs) in the late 1980s and 1990s have largely been associated with increases in people’s poverty, vulnerability and social exclusion in Nicaragua.  This was brought into stark reality when Hurricane Mitch hit the region in October 1998 leading to one of the worst disaster in Central America in over 200 years.

In June 1999 the G7 Summit in Berlin linked debt relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC II) initiative to the production of a Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS).  In January 2000 the Government of Nicaragua presented to the National Economic and Social Planning Council (CONPES) an initial draft document that would form the basis of a PRS, and in July 2000 presented an Interim PRSP to the World Bank for approval.  In October 2000 the PRSP was translated and made available in Spanish for the first time and after limited consultation a final PRSP was produced in 2001. 

It is now over three years since decision point when Nicaragua was accepted onto the HIPC II initiative in December 2000.  Nicaragua was at the floating completion point stage with interim assistance available, prior to full access to HIPC II debt relief once completion point is reached.  In late 2003 the IMF began to show signs that it would relax some of the privatisation conditionalities being imposed on the Nicaraguan Government which could pave the way for HIPC II completion point and full entry. 

In January 2004 Nicaragua reached the enhanced HIPC initiative completion point.  After the application of traditional debt relief mechanisms and with full potential assistance under the HIPC II the overall benefit to Nicaragua is represented by an estimated 73% reduction on external debt (in terms of the 1999 Net Present Value of debt).

Girl Cassette Seller
Christoph Grandt, May 1999

Ten Córdobas (US $ 0.6) earnings for each cassette sold is not 
little, but to convince clients to buy is hard work. Now I don't 
sell cassettes now but games and balloons, like hundreds of other 
children that work in the Malecón and shore area of Lake Managua