Economic Growth and Environment
USAID reduces poverty and improves food security by supporting agricultural diversification, fostering natural resources management, developing sustainable tourism opportunities, promoting renewable energy, and mitigating climate change.
Food Security and Agricultural Diversification: As a focus country under the U.S. Government’s Feed the Future Initiative, USAID is assisting the Honduran government to cut extreme poverty in half by 2015. As part of this effort, USAID interventions increase incomes and improve the nutritional status of people at risk of food insecurity.
USAID’s food security and agricultural diversification program helps subsistence farmers in some of the poorest areas of Honduras to increase their incomes through crop diversification, improved production techniques that yield better quality harvests, and enhanced access to local and international markets. This diversification strategy promotes a shift in production from traditional crops, such as corn and beans, to non-traditional and value-added agricultural products with stronger earnings potential. Over the past five years, this approach has successfully helped small and medium producers and processors achieve more than US$ 40 million in new sales.
The program also improves access to private financing for farmers and small businesses. Activities strengthen the ties among property rights, transaction law, and efficient bankruptcy processes to provide the national banking system with the legal security that it needs to increase the availability of financial products to poor and marginalized farmers. Activities also support the development of women-owned micro, small, and medium enterprises; and they provide agricultural extension, business development, and financial services that are geared to the unique constraints faced by women.
For more information, please visti:
http://www.feedthefuture.gov/strategicreviews.html
Environment and Tourism: USAID is helping Honduras to balance its economic and social development with the conservation of biodiversity and natural resources. Tourism in and around natural parks is a significant source of employment in rural areas and is an effective vehicle for spurring ecological conservation and economic growth. USAID promotes sustainable rural tourism by improving the conservation of protected areas and by encouraging micro and small business participation in eco-tourism. Environmental and tourism activities also strengthen the ability of non-governmental organizations to manage natural parks, particularly those with high tourism and income potential. USAID additionally collaborates with local governments and the private sector to conserve tropical forests and other ecosystems on private and municipal lands.
Renewable Energy and Climate Change: To mitigate climate change, USAID encourages the use of renewable energy by promoting private investment, as well as an improved regulatory system that provides incentives for the use of renewable energy approaches. The program invests in small renewable energy projects in isolated communities that are not connected to the national electric grid. Activities also develop national and local capacity to respond to natural disasters, such as hurricanes. USAID additionally provides humanitarian assistance for both natural and man-made disasters, usually within the first 48 hours of the event.
USAID ASSISTANCE TO HONDURAS IN ECONOMIC GROWTH
(in $US millions) |
FY 2009
Actual |
FY 2010
Actual |
FY 2011
Request |
FY 2012
Request |
Economic Growth Assistance |
10.3 |
16.3 |
31.9 |
32.8 |
|
