PressTV – Nicaragua reduces poverty rate in rural areas.
It took 25 years to get rid of the Americans, and this is how it’s done when there is no interference.
The International Foundation for Global Economic Challenges (FIDEG) has confirmed that Nicaragua has significantly reduced the country’s extreme poverty rate in rural areas, Press TV reports.
According to the FIDEG’s recent report, Nicaragua — where most of the population lives in the countryside — has reduced its extreme poverty rate from 19 to 10 percent in just five years.
“These results are basically explained by three main factors: there are the increases in the incomes of the households; higher incomes from remittances; and the income that is due to the social programs of the government,” said Enrique Alaniz, research director at FIDEG.
Experts say the reduction in extreme poverty is due to the Sandinista government’s mutual cooperation with Western aid institutions, instead of the traditional debt-dependency model usually imposed on developing countries.
Western aid institutions have been criticized for dominating domestic policies in favor of Western corporate interests as a condition of providing aid.
“That policy of intervention through NGOs works when a government gives back to its people…it is more important to focus on foreign policies which create welfare that causes changes in the model where citizens’ participation, citizens’ power has a more relevant role,” said Ivan Acosta, Minister of Finance and Public Credit.
Under the program, Nicaragua has increased its productivity and exports, including providing free education and health services, which have helped the most vulnerable become self-sufficient.
Globally, the Millennium Development Goal has launched a campaign to cut extreme poverty in half by 2015; experts say the program is struggling to be realized following the financial crises and ongoing wars from policies of Western powers.
GMA/JR
via PressTV – Nicaragua reduces poverty rate in rural areas.
New York Times June 22 2012
Nicaragua was colonized by the Spanish Empire in the 16th century. It won independence from Spain in 1821.
From the mid-1930s until 1979, the Somoza family controlled the government, the military and much of the Nicaraguan economy. In July 1979, the Somoza dynasty was ended by an uprising led by the Sandinista National Liberation Front. The Sandinistas put in place a different kind of authoritarian regime.
During the 1980s, Nicaragua was the center of Cold War confrontation in the Western Hemisphere, with the former Soviet Union and Cuba providing assistance to the Sandinista government, and the United States supporting anti-government forces. A regional peace initiative brought an end to civil war in the late 1980s. The Sandinistas, led by Daniel Ortega, lost in the 1990 elections.
However, in 2006, Mr. Ortega ran again for president as the Sandinista’s candidate, and won.
In November 2011, he was up for re-election, enjoying wide support. On the left, he is admired by many for his focus on the poor. On the right, a surprising number support his hands-off approach to business.
Much of his support was due to an alliance with President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, which brought about $2 billion to the Nicaraguan economy over the past several years.
On Nov. 6, Mr. Ortega was leading the polls, though less than 20 percent of polling stations had reported. There were numerous complaints of about the electoral process: Hagamos Democracia, or Let’s Make Democracy, reported 600 complaints of voting irregularitities. But international election observers, including the European Union, said the process they had witnessed had been free of any major problems, and activity at the polls was calmer than many people had anticipated, with no extensive violence.
New York Times
Ortega
June, 22, 2012
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- Making a difference in Nicaragua (beamergringos.wordpress.com)
