El Salvador, famously known for its beaches and volcanoes, achieved considerable poverty reduction from the years 2000-2019. The percentage of households living below the official poverty line dropped from 38.7% to 22.8%. However, due to the disastrous effects of the pandemic, the country lost much of this progress. Since then, the government and various charities and organizations have acted in strategizing future reduction methods. These focus on improving the business environment, creating quality jobs as well as enhancing social programs and improving access to services like education and health care.

Project ‘Rural Dawn’

Effects of poverty include vulnerability to environmental disasters, such as droughts. This results in people lacking food security due to challenges in obtaining modern farming technology or suitable farmland. Between the months of February and May in 2023, 85,000 people were in a food crisis or worse, this is an important issue to confront in the mission to reduce poverty in El Salvador, as food insecurity has been a serious ongoing issue for many years.

To create opportunities in such a dire situation, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) teamed with the Government of El Salvador in 2019 to launch the Rural Adelante project. This project is a wide-reaching scheme endeavoring to improve food security and living conditions among the rural poor, by providing farmers with support to increase their incomes. Through agricultural training, access to micro-financing and the creation of local cooperatives, families who once struggled to meet their basic needs, are now generating steady incomes and gaining financial independence. The project has succeeded in connecting rural farmers to the supply chain of more crops and has benefited more than 40,000 agricultural families. The program also has a specific focus on engaging women, young people and those from indigenous origin, offering training and opportunities to build successful businesses.

Growing Tourism in Surf City

As tourism grows, poverty reduces due to the new jobs and opportunities that become accessible to local people. With the growth of tourism comes openings of hotels, restaurants, new shops, wider transportation as well as demand for tour guides. These jobs do not require advanced degrees, meaning poorer communities are able to gain employment. Surf City, El Salvador’s coastal tourism project, focuses on enhancing connectivity and visitor experience through making significant infrastructural changes, which should positively impact more than 69,000 Salvadorans. These changes include new water treatment facilities to improve water quality, this is particularly important due to the struggles commonly faced in accessing clean water; more than 1.6 million residents of El Salvador need to leave their homes just to find and gather clean water to use.

Along with the improvements El Salvador is making to roads through adding bicycle and pedestrian lanes to improve safety, the project aims to improve quality of life for both tourists and locals, while also providing plenty of construction and engineering jobs. The country has witnessed impressive growth in tourism, in 2023 there were more than 3.4 million international visitors, stimulating the local economy through commerce.

Security and Safety

In recent years, crime rates have dropped significantly, with homicide rates declining 98% from the years 2015 to 2024. This is a result of harsher police enforcement and punishment for crime, which has led to an increase in success for small businesses, street vendors and entrepreneurs. For decades, gangs extorted these groups and even families. With extortion dropping by nearly 50% in 2024, microbusinesses are now able to keep more earnings. This encourages financial security for thousands more businesses and also eliminates costs previously spent on security guards, protection payments and theft losses, meaning that working people are keeping more of their income than previous corrupt social systems allowed.

Reduced crime and homicide rates contribute to psychological and social security; where previous fear of gangs may have kept people absent from school or work. Now, they are able to attend regularly and with less risk. This builds human capital, which is key to long-term poverty reduction in El Salvador.

TechnoServe’s Work

TechnoServe is a nonprofit organization that has been proposing business solutions to poverty for over three decades, through helping small businesses improve and grow. Its Crece Tu Empresa program (CRECE) is a scheme focused on involving young people in business leadership. CRECE supported 1,500 entrepreneurs and more than 500 youth-led businesses have benefitted from the program, 66% of which were female led. Its work has benefited many business and it is particularly important in this country, where high levels of unemployment limit opportunities for many young people and women.

By providing training, mentoring and business tools, entrepreneurs can professionalize and strengthen their businesses, leading to increased revenue and business growth. This results in a chain of positive effects, such as increased income, more job opportunities and stronger connections between local businesses due to reinvestment in local produce and services. This also encourages empowerment for young women due to increased involvement in schemes like these. When marginalized groups earn their own income, household stability improves and intergenerational poverty reduces. TechnoServe’s involvement in El Salvador is long-lasting as they provide important education. This is effective in ways different to one-time aid as it helps to build lasting economic resilience, resulting in more sustainable poverty reduction in El Salvador.

Looking Ahead

The work that is occurring to help relieve poverty in El Salvador, from both the government and charitable organizations, is widespread. From infrastructure and food security, to educating business skills, an abundance of work is being done to help the country’s downfalls. The improvements being made will benefit both the locals and tourists, and create better connectivity to the rest of the world. Although poverty remains a large issue, the work being done currently aims to build strong foundations for the future, with hopes to change public perceptions of El Salvador.

– Abigail Gadsden

Abigail is based in Medway, Kent, UK and focuses on Good News and Celebs for The Borgen Project.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons