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Letter from the Director |
WHO WE ARE |
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El Salvador has seen many positive changes, starting with its successful reconstruction after the signing of the Peace Accords in 1992. At USAID, we eagerly supported this process in order to help El Salvador build a thriving democracy supported by forward growth and prosperity. Over the past several decades, we have worked together with our partners from the public and private sectors and are proud to have contributed to substantial improvements in the welfare of the Salvadoran people. These include: a decrease in child mortality rates, improvements in national achievement test results for the country’s youth, and the creation of a national I.D. system. Through our recent free trade agreement and support for economic growth, we’ve helped with the creation of thousands of jobs, built hundreds of small and medium Salvadoran businesses in the global economy, and assisted the Government with collecting tax revenues of nearly $4 billion to fund social programs and security. Despite these achievements, much remains to be done. Rising violence and crime, as well as the scarcity of opportunities for employment, are impediments to the long term economic growth that is key in helping support the country’s future. These challenges, however, do not discourage us. We feel deeply inspired by the resilience of the Salvadoran people, which motivates us to look for creative ways to work together to solve these problems and achieve the Millennium Development Goals. One of these new approaches is the creation of alliances with the private sector. In 2010, we launched seven new alliances that totaled over $15 million that address several areas such as health, nutrition, education, employment creation, strengthening small and medium business, and violence prevention. The development programs presented in this website you are currently visiting represent the culmination of years of work here in El Salvador to create and sustain positive social and economic change. We hope this site will be a tool for two-way communication: that it will be useful for you to learn more about our programs and for us to hear from you on questions or suggestions. El Salvador is a beautiful country, and its citizens strive daily to create a better quality of life for themselves and their families. We are confident that our joint work with the Salvadoran people, donors, government authorities, the private sector, and civil society will help create the conditions necessary to achieve a safer, democratic, more prosperous El Salvador well into the future.
Kirk Dahlgren |
