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In August 2008 the government launched its development plan for 2008-2012, which aims at further reducing poverty and social inequality in the country and implementing a balanced expansion of social expenditures for services such as health, education and water supply. The plan continues the existing Solidaridad social development programme, which focused on ‘Eating First’, a school food programme; on incentives for school attendance; and on a programme facilitating provision of birth certificates and identity documents to poor families. The government’s approach, which promoting demand-led and participatory schemes among organizations of poor rural people, is in harmony with IFAD’s own poverty reduction and rural development strategies.

The government’s development plan for 2008–2012 will expand the Solidaridad programme, increasing the total number of people who will benefit from it. One measure will increase the monthly subsidy for food for families under the ‘Eating First’ programme. To ensure sustainability for the social development programmes, the government will implement an aggressive employment programme. It will consolidate the social security system and improve its operations and benefits. 

In the agricultural sector, the plan calls for continued support for competitiveness and quality, and further productive integration of food and agricultural value chains, as well as for development of gender equity. It places particular emphasis on maintaining the country’s food security and expanding external markets for traditional and non-traditional products.

The government’s poverty reduction efforts address the extreme poverty among Dominicans of Haitian origin and the need to improve living conditions in the bateys, or slums, that are home to the poorest of the poor. The government’s official acknowledgement of the need for inclusive social development led to targeted initiatives supported by IFAD, in collaboration with other multilateral and bilateral donors, to address the problems of poverty and social integration among the country’s poorest, most marginalized people.

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), World Bank and European Union are the major multilateral donors working in partnership with IFAD in the Dominican Republic. Bilateral donors include the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the German Credit Institution for Reconstruction (KfW), the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ) and the governments of Italy, France, Japan and Spain.

Source: IFAD