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The government’s poverty reduction strategy has five main goals:

• reducing poverty and improving income distribution
• shifting economic development policy towards employment generation
• improving public finances
• investing in human capital development
• reforming and modernizing the structure of the government

The strategies that the government will implement to achieve its goals include:

• expansive economic growth oriented towards generating ‘quality’ employment
• an aggressive human capital development programme
• provision of direct subsidies to poor and extremely poor households
• implementation of programmes to generate income and increase productivity in poor rural areas

The government has launched an aggressive rural infrastructure investment development programme. It is distributing high levels of financial resources to municipalities, and it is working to achieve effective decentralization through devolution of functions and responsibilities to local governments.

The Ministry of Agriculture’s sectoral plan for 2004–2009 aims to strengthen small, medium and large producers. The plan includes support for:

• market and agribusiness development
• competitiveness
• rural financing
• stimulus to rural development
• modernization of the agricultural public sector

Source: IFAD