Issue No. 4
April - June 2006

To Governments and Partner Agencies:

We are half way through 2006 and are already seeing important advances in Central America that herald increased development for our countries’ rural areas.

The harmonization and alignment of resources to promote rural development in strategic areas of various countries, the steps taken for the design of the Central American Agricultural Policy and the new RUTA, IFAD, DFID and World Bank projects to support the region’s rural entrepreneurial organizations, are just some of the initiatives under way.

There have also been some positive trends, such as the use of agricultural value added chains to attract investment toward rural areas, while some countries are working on programs to modernize agriculture.

Amid all this regional activity, RUTA and its partner agencies have paused along the way to plan their cooperation efforts for the coming months. The main focus of these plans continues to be the fight against poverty and the quest for Sustainable Rural Development, the challenges that inspire our daily work.