Actions to eradicate poverty and promote development

(Bogota, October 18, 2006).- The Andean Development Corporation (CAF) joined the Strategy to Reduce Poverty and Inequality launched in Colombia.

With technical cooperation funds CAF will support the Colombian government in its poverty reduction program, financing studies and the dissemination of the higher education and families in action programs, included in the strategies of the Mission to Reduce Poverty and Inequality (MERPD).

The strategy was prepared by an expert mission set up in 2004, under the coordination of the National Planning Department, which studied for over a year and half the causes that generate this scourge and the design of long- and medium-term actions aimed at substantially improving the living conditions of 49.2% of the most vulnerable population of the country.

During the launch event, President Alvaro Uribe Velez announced that he would promote a 35% or more reduction in poverty. "Our goal is that in 2010 Colombia will no longer have over 35% poverty, and one way of achieving this is 6% growth, accompanied by a deepening of social policy," he said.

The MERPD has four strategies designed to attack extreme poverty, moderate poverty, rural poverty and inequality.

The Mission promotes the creation of a Social Protection Network against extreme poverty which gives an integrated response to the needs of families, helping them overcome their condition of poverty and improve their quality of life.

For moderate poverty, an integrated social protection system will be implemented to prevent these households from reducing their level of consumption in cases of unemployment, illness or incapacity, among others, and protect the poorest sectors during economic crises and natural disasters.

The strategy against rural poverty promotes a significant increase in the income level of campesinos and works for the formation of an integrated social protection system for rural families.

Against inequality, the mission will expand higher education to provide poor young people with the human capital necessary to access labor markets more easily.

The MERPD is also supported by IBD, ECLAC, the World Bank, and UNDP.