Honduras

Honduras is a young nation. Some 41 % of the population are children and young people under the age of 15. The government invests heavily in the school system and in the education of children and young people, introducing far-reaching reforms in 2012: all children now have access to pre-primary education, while attending school is obligatory for children from 7 to 12 years.

Teachers are now trained at universities. The education system was decentralised with a view to accommodating the needs of local communities better, and this has also made the use of funds more transparent. KfW Development Bank is therefore supporting the Honduran Ministry of Education in developing school infrastructure. Investments in this regard are prioritised in accordance with a master plan as required. This approach is already yielding success: the performances of Honduran pupils in maths and Spanish have improved considerably. Moreover, children are attending school for longer: in 2009 a child in Honduras attended school on average for 5.8 years, while in 2013 this figure had jumped to 7.7 years.

Project example - Education  (PDF, 188 KB, non-accessible)

More than half of Honduras is covered with forests. The country has one of the largest contiguous rainforests in Central America, which is home to a huge number of rare animals and plants. But this natural wealth is under threat: over the last 30 years, Honduras has lost 35 % of its forests, and another 2 % is destroyed every year. The reasons for this lie in the extensive industries of agriculture and livestock farming. Forests are cleared to make way for cattle pastures. Forest fires and rampant deforestation are commonplace. Unregulated property ownership and the illegal appropriation of land also contribute to the disappearance of the rainforest. Honduras has declared the protection and sustainable use of its natural resources to be a national objective, while finding solutions to economic and social problems is a priority for the government.

Consequently, KfW Development Bank is supporting the country in combating poverty whilst also protecting the climate and the environment. To this end, land rights are being registered for example, primarily for the indigenous population, and people are being helped to tap into new sources of income. Developing sustainable forms of land use and income generation alleviates the pressure on natural resources. The biosphere of Rio Plátano, the largest protected area in Honduras and the centrepiece of the Central American biocorridor, is one of the focal areas of this work.