Central America

Land use patterns in the Rio Changuinola watershed, Bocas del Toro, Panama. USAID is helping to reduce threats to biodiversity in critical watersheds, including Bocas del Toro.

Overview

A big challenge to sustainable growth in Central America is the wave of violent crime in the region, much of it driven by criminal gangs. High homicide rates, street crime, cross-border narcotics trade, and money laundering are disincentives to investment and impediments to development.USAID and other USG agencies are responding through a series of capacity-building programs in the affected countries.

Central America needs to promote more open, diversified, and expanding economies. Most governments in the region understand that faster economic growth is achieved by competing in global markets, and that countries must meet international standards for product quality and compete as a diverse regional market. The Central American economy is becoming increasingly more relevant than the economies of the individual countries, which is exemplified in the Central America-Dominican Republic-United States Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR). The United States—the region's biggest trading partner—ratified the document.

HIV/AIDS remains a serious threat to sustainable development in Central America. A priority for the region is to strengthen the policies and local capacities of governments in order to increase awareness and commitment of policies that combat HIV/AIDS. It is necessary to increase the extension, coverage and effectiveness of proven behavior-change interventions with high-prevalence groups. This will assist in collecting and disseminating surveillance and other information for improved policies and decision making. The establishment of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria provides both an opportunity and a challenge due to the countries’ limited ability to effectively allocate the funds.

Programs

Governing Justly & Democratically

USAID, through the Latin America and Caribbean Regional Program, supports crime prevention programs at the regional level. Assistance is provided to the Central American Integration System (SICA) to spur development of policy initiatives and implementation of reforms in citizen security, while promoting multi-country policy and legal reform to improve the treatment and rehabilitation of youth and seek alliances with the private sector and other civil society organizations in order to create opportunities for ex-gang members and at-risk youth.

Economic Growth

The Central America and Mexico Regional Program—administered by USAID’s El Salvador Mission—contributes to open, diversified, and expanding economies throughout the region. The program targets the adoption of laws, policies, and regulations that promote trade and investment in addition to improved management of critical watersheds and natural resources.  USAID is helping countries facilitate trade by developing more consistent customs provisions, rules of origin procedures, and sanitation standards requirements. Assistance is also provided to enforce environmental laws and strengthen the capacity of labor justice institutions.

Investing In People

The regional HIV/AIDS program helps contain the disease through targeted behavior-change programs for high-risk groups and an improved HIV/AIDS policy environment. The program features a multi-sector approach with partners in the public, private, traditional, non-traditional, faith-based, and secular fields. The program emphasizes the participation and strengthening of local organizations to respond to the HIV/AIDS threat to future sustainable development of Central America.  The strategic use of information for advocacy, policy-making, monitoring, and evaluation of program efforts will be a key tenet of this activity.  It will also integrate USAID-supported policy reform, human rights, and stigma reduction activities, which reduce the conditions of vulnerability on the target population to make decisions freely with regard to safer sexual practices. This program supports the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the Agency’s goal of protecting human health.