Under a plan called the Central American Alliance for Prosperity, the United States, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras join efforts to ease the insecurity and economic problems in the Northern Triangle.
Officials from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and the United States are cooperating on a broad strategy, the “Plan of the Alliance for Prosperity in the Northern Triangle,” to improve economic conditions — and by extension, security.
Half of the plan’s budget focuses on providing jobs, cutting poverty and implementing changes to economic policies, while the rest of the funds would be used to bolster economic institutions and improve security. The latter effort will prove crucial to development in the region.
“A peaceful Central America, with opportunities for its people, with justice and security, will be of great benefit not only for our citizens but also for the United States and other peoples of the world,” said Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, speaking at a conference about investing in Central America at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in Washington, DC in November.
Multiple nations to contribute funding
Though most of the funding will come from the Northern Triangle nations of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, the global benefits that President Hernández spoke of gives other countries an incentive to contribute to the program.
“They’re looking for 80 percent of the plan to come from themselves, and 20 percent from abroad,” said Jason Marczak, Deputy Director of the Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center at the Atlantic Council.
Accordingly, the plan includes a proposal for up to $1 billion (USD) in funding from the United States.
“This level of support is nearly three times what we have provided to Central America in the recent past,” U.S. Vice President Joe Biden wrote in an op-ed published in several newspapers in March. “But the cost of investing now in a Central America where young people can thrive in their own communities pales in comparison to the costs of another generation of violence, poverty, desperation and emigration.”
Despite significant financial investments into the program, however, it will proceed not as a quick fix, but as a comprehensive, long-term effort.
“A lot of these measures are not going to show you results in three years, but in 10 years,” said said Adam Isacson, Associate for Regional Security Policy at the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA).
Officials from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and the United States are cooperating on a broad strategy, the “Plan of the Alliance for Prosperity in the Northern Triangle,” to improve economic conditions — and by extension, security.
Half of the plan’s budget focuses on providing jobs, cutting poverty and implementing changes to economic policies, while the rest of the funds would be used to bolster economic institutions and improve security. The latter effort will prove crucial to development in the region.
“A peaceful Central America, with opportunities for its people, with justice and security, will be of great benefit not only for our citizens but also for the United States and other peoples of the world,” said Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, speaking at a conference about investing in Central America at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in Washington, DC in November.
Multiple nations to contribute funding
Though most of the funding will come from the Northern Triangle nations of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, the global benefits that President Hernández spoke of gives other countries an incentive to contribute to the program.
“They’re looking for 80 percent of the plan to come from themselves, and 20 percent from abroad,” said Jason Marczak, Deputy Director of the Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center at the Atlantic Council.
Accordingly, the plan includes a proposal for up to $1 billion (USD) in funding from the United States.
“This level of support is nearly three times what we have provided to Central America in the recent past,” U.S. Vice President Joe Biden wrote in an op-ed published in several newspapers in March. “But the cost of investing now in a Central America where young people can thrive in their own communities pales in comparison to the costs of another generation of violence, poverty, desperation and emigration.”
Despite significant financial investments into the program, however, it will proceed not as a quick fix, but as a comprehensive, long-term effort.
“A lot of these measures are not going to show you results in three years, but in 10 years,” said said Adam Isacson, Associate for Regional Security Policy at the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA).