Plan in Central and South America
Plan is present in Latin and Central America in the following countries; Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Paraguay and Peru.
Situation in the region
Progress in Latin America and the Caribbean has generally been slow, especially with regards to electricity coverage, and infrastructures like roads and telecommunication. The region’s economic activity did however pick up during the course of 2006, reflecting favourable international conditions, with low interest rates, high commodity prices and strong import demand. Several countries have made impressive progress on social indicators, including the number of children (both girls and boys) completing primary school, infant mortality rate went down from 43 to 24 per 1,000 live births from 1990 to 2004, and child mortality in the same period decreased to 31 from 51 per 1,000 live births and the region is close to meeting the Millennium Development Goal on child mortality (World Development Indicators 2006).
And although over the past 20 years Latin American and Caribbean countries have made significant progress in promoting gender equality, inequalities remain an obstacle to their full development. Such inequality results, amongst other things, in un-realised potential of women, lack of integration into the economy (women form only 35.2% of the total labour force) and the social and economic cost of violence against women.
Poverty remains an unresolved problem. The region’s main development challenge continues to be persistent poverty and inequalities. In a region still rich in natural resources and human capital, nearly a quarter of the population lives on less than $2 a day.
Plan’s work in the region
Even if issues identified by Plan affiliated-communities are different, there are however some common priorities. These include:
- Child protection remained one of the focuses of Plan’s programme work in the region. Interventions in this area were last year directed towards the prevention of household and sexual violence (Colombia, Ecuador, and Honduras); mobilisation of civilians for the enforcement of child protection laws; birth registration (Bolivia); and psycho-social support and reconstruction for displaced people (Colombia).
- Quality learning has been the central focus in all education programmes in the region in 2006 with the objectives of increasing the number of children attending schools and improving the education they receive. In order to improve the quality of education, pupils and parents have been involved in school management, the teaching capacities of teachers have been improved, child-friendly environments have been created, and curricula have been adapted to reflect local circumstances. Programmes are carried out in cooperation with local governments and public educational services.
- Programmes aimed at providing better food security and improve livelihood were run in Peru and Nicaragua, and interventions integrating environmental and food security aspects were carried out in Ecuador and Bolivia.
- Plan also executed programmes on HIV/Aids prevention targeted at young people and school-age children in Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru and Paraguay, benefiting a total of 13,750 children and adolescents, 3,000 adults and 500 professionals.
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