Latin America
DFID
will increase its overall spending in Latin America by 15% over the next 3
years, from some £84 million in 2007/8 to £97 million in 2010/11.
The greater part of the funding will be through the
European
Commission and the
World
Bank. We will continue to work in Brazil, where our focus will be on
supporting Brazil’s role in global development.
The remainder of the funding will be channelled largely through civil
society – in recognition of their role at the frontline of tackling social
exclusion and inequality. This will include support to civil society in
Nicaragua, and wider funding for 12 UK NGO’s who work in the region. Our
Partnership Agreement is available
here (1.96MB)
The NGO’s who will receive this additional funding are:
Research institutions in the region will also receive support for work on climate change and poverty.
The strengthened emphasis on working through civil society in the region – and the decision to focus scarce resources on Low Income Countries and fragile states in other regions – means that DFID will now no longer keep offices in Nicaragua or Bolivia. Our office in Bolivia closed in September 2008, and in Nicaragua we will be closing the bilateral programme – and the office – by April 2009. It also means that our specific programme of working with the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank on governance and access to markets by poor people will also close in 2008/9.
The UK Government’s programme of working with the International Financial Institutions in Latin America has generated significant impact over the last 3 years. An evaluation is currently under way, and will be made publicly available soon. See below for some success stories from our work.
Latin America holds a number of important lessons for the rest of the world on development. In late 2008, DFID produced six lessons learnt notes which capture the main lessons learned from the Latin America programmes, and the innovative good practice which was developed. These notes cover the following topics:
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Market access for the poor (282kb)
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The impacts of international trade on poverty (250kb)
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Financial inclusion (160kb)
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Sub-national governance and its role in poverty reduction (208kb)
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Putting poverty on political party agendas (618kb)
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DFID’s partnerships with the World Bank and IDB (211kb)
For further information, please contact Paul Spray, Deputy Director, Latin America and Caribbean Department.
Links
Last updated: January 2009
