Nicaragua

Nicaragua is the largest country in Central America and gained independence from Spain in the nineteenth century.

 

It is one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere due to a history of dictatorship, civil war and natural disasters. In 1990, after many years of civil war between the government and rebels, a peace agreement was made. Although this period of reconciliation brought some economic growth, lower inflation and lower unemployment, development was severely set back by the devastating Hurricane Mitch in 1998.

 

However in 2000 Nicaragua was accepted into the Highly Indebted Poor Countries Initiative and since then the country has been able to secure 58% of the US$6.22 billion pardoned under the initiative. Nevertheless great inequalities in the distribution of wealth combined with global recession, low coffee prices, and drought continue to hamper economic progress. Widespread poverty affects children and women most severely, with a third of children suffering some degree of chronic malnutrition and a high maternal mortality rate.