CRS Work in Nicaragua

Agriculture

Three-fourths of Nicaragua's poor live in rural areas and are heavily dependent on agriculture for survival. With little access to credit, equipment and infrastructure, small-scale farmers in the hemisphere's second-poorest country struggle to feed their families by growing corn and beans for local markets. One bad harvest can create a ripple effect of misfortune, putting at risk everything from a family's health to the education of its children.

Today, global economic forces are forcing Nicaraguan farmers to find alternatives to selling their crops in local markets, where pay is often low and unpredictable. A stable livelihood now depends on getting crops onto supermarket shelves and into the hands of buyers in Nicaragua and beyond.

Catholic Relief Services Nicaragua's flagship agricultural program works with 5,400 farmers in 44 municipalities in Nicaragua to make that transition from selling at local levels to competing within formal supply chains at the national level, and at regional and international levels. Known as ACORDAR (Alliance to Create Opportunities for Rural Development through Agroenterprise Relationships), the $7.6-million U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded project aims to create 23,000 new jobs while raising the income of the majority of participants by at least 20 percent.

Through the alliance—a unique mix of international and local nongovernmental organizations, municipal government, and the private sector—farmers receive training on crop diversification, processing and postharvest techniques to meet national and international agricultural standards. They also learn business and management skills, including the use of critical market-pricing information so that farmers can sell their crops at the best possible time. Infrastructure improvements include a commercialization facility, a packing center, a coffee dry mill processing center, and community storage centers.

Through a Central America-wide grant from the Howard Buffett Foundation, CRS helps families in Nicaragua manage and protect their community water sources so that poor farmers can increase their agricultural production and income.

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Microfinance

Small-scale farmers in Nicaragua rely on affordable credit, whether they use it to buy seeds and fertilizer, raise livestock, or to avoid selling the fruits of a harvest until the price peaks. CRS Nicaragua manages a microcredit fund to increase the incomes of farming families and make them more competitive in an increasingly global market. More than 3,000 families in 10 municipalities in northern Nicaragua have taken advantage of the small loans we provide through a network of local partners.

CRS also uses the funding to help organized farmer cooperatives develop and carry out business plans that enhance the marketability of their members' crops, and ultimately generate more income. For example, five partner cooperatives encompassing 900 farmers have used the loans to grow and export more profitable crops such as pumpkin and sweet onions, building a much-needed storage and packing plant in the process.

CRS also spearheads an effort to ensure microfinance institutions can meet their original and most important goal: to serve poor men and women who would otherwise be excluded by the formal banking system. With commercial banks and other for-profit financial institutions vying for a piece of the microfinance market, traditional microfinance institutions are feeling pressure to watch their bottom line, grow their portfolios and function more efficiently. As a result, the original philosophy behind the movement—to improve the lives of the world's poorest and most excluded people—has been lost in the shuffle.

Financed in part by the Ford Foundation, the CRS-led MISION project is working with 10 nonprofit microfinance institutions in Nicaragua and Peru to help them measure their social impact, with the ultimate goal of reaching more than 100 institutions by project's end. Whether increasing the number of poor clients or targeting more women, the MISION project helps microfinance institutions translate their social goals into practice by developing a series of indicators that analyze everything from staff satisfaction to the financial services they provide.

Health and Risk Management in the Coastal Areas

Geographical isolation, limited access to even the most basic social services, and extreme weather patterns caused by global warming conspire to make the North Atlantic autonomous region of Nicaragua particularly vulnerable to natural disasters. In September 2007, Hurricane Felix devastated the region, one of the poorest in the country, killing at least 100 people. The Category 5 storm brought heavy rains and flooding, destroyed entire Miskito communities along the northern Caribbean coast and inland, and wiped out crops—and future harvests—of these mainly subsistence farmers.

Earlier in 2005, Hurricanes Stan and Beta lashed several indigenous communities living on the banks of the Coco River on the Honduran border. In both cases, CRS, together with longtime local partner the Vicariate of Bluefields, responded quickly, providing emergency relief supplies of food and material for temporary shelter to the most remote areas of this region.

Today, CRS is helping rebuild communities and alleviate poverty in the region with programs that improve people's health, revive agricultural production, and prepare communities to better withstand future disasters. CRS provides much-needed food to more than 1,500 pregnant and nursing mothers in combination with training on hygiene, adequate diet, and emergency preparedness and response.

CRS works with these same communities to address the widespread lack of safe water by building and repairing community water systems, latrines and wells, and by teaching families simple ways of collecting and purifying water. By helping to clear debris from farms, planting new crops, and providing vital tools and seeds, CRS is working to rebuild more resilient livelihoods and improve agricultural production in this sparsely populated region.

With a particular emphasis on teaching better management of natural resources, improving degraded land, and helping communities organize into emergency teams, this long-term effort will help communities improve their lives and protect against future disasters.

Civil Society and Human Rights

High unemployment and increasing poverty in Nicaragua have resulted in a steady stream of migration from rural to urban areas, to Costa Rica and to the United States. Today, a quarter of all Nicaraguans live outside of the country. About 450,000 Nicaraguans live in neighboring Costa Rica, where the economy is stronger and jobs are more abundant. These migrants are especially vulnerable to abuses by police and government agents along the way. Often, Nicaraguan migrants fall prey to abusive labor practices. CRS is increasingly concerned about the dangers of human trafficking.

CRS Nicaragua supports two shelters in border cities in Nicaragua and Costa Rica that provide food, shelter and legal advice to Nicaraguans migrating to Costa Rica. The program also supports advocacy efforts in both countries that call for legal and policy reform to better protect the rights of Nicaraguan migrants. In areas of the country that border Honduras and Costa Rica, CRS and our local Church partners are helping to establish community vigilance committees to detect and prevent the tragedy of human trafficking.

Taking advantage of the steady flow of migrants who offer a cheap source of labor, "maquila" factories are expanding throughout the country, further accelerating internal migration. Operating in tax-free zones, these mostly foreign-owned assembly plants employ thousands of Nicaraguan workers, a number which is expected to grow since Nicaragua signed the Central American Free Trade Agreement.

Because of increased competition, labor conditions in the maquilas are precarious and workers are often unaware of their rights as employees. To attack the root causes of labor violations and support a culture of labor law compliance, CRS Nicaragua runs two worker rights centers to educate workers about labor rights and provide them with legal guidance about the procedures and documentation needed to exercise those rights. The project is part of a regional effort that includes CRS programs in Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras—all members of the Central American Free Trade Agreement.