Tegucigalpa.- Central America and the Dominican Republic face an uncertain outlook, and although the region’s economic growth has surpassed the Latin American average, its benefits are not distributed equitably, according to the ‘Seventh State of the
Region 2025′ Report
“If the economic, social, environmental, and political trends prevailing in the last decade persist, a likely scenario is that of greater lags in human development and greater conflicts and tensions within and between national states,” underlines the study presented this Tuesday in Tegucigalpa by the State of the Nation Program (PEN), in alliance with the National Autonomous University of Honduras and the European Union.
The research coordinator of the report, Alberto Mora, emphasized in the presentation that the scenario is not desirable, nor is it inevitable, and that “the time to act is today”.
Mora said that the report analyzes the sustainable human development of Central America and the Dominican Republic, with emphasis on the period 2018-2024, and that “the panorama today is very different from that reported in the first report in 1999. On that occasion it was pointed out that for the first time in 30 years the region had experienced a positive decade in which it recovered political stability and initiated a period of economic and social progress”.
“Today, however, we warn that it is in the most dangerous situation since that time,” he added.
The study indicates that actions to improve the situation in the region require simultaneous efforts from various social, economic, and political sectors, which transcend national states to seek joint actions in the face of common challenges.
Add that moving towards sustainable human development requires leadership and social agreements to ensure that institutional capacities are consistent with the defined goals and objectives.
Effective monitoring and evaluation mechanisms are also needed, and to advance in a process of this nature it is essential to reassess the principles on which democracy is based and seek to strengthen it for the common good.
It also highlights that Central America and the Dominican Republic “are going through one of the most dangerous situations since the end of the political-military conflicts thirty years ago” and that “if at that time pacification opened a hope for sustainable human development and democracy, today that hope has largely faded”.
According to the report, the idea of the region as a space for political identity and joint action is also at its worst moment since the relaunch of regional integration with the Tegucigalpa Protocol of 1991, which gave life to the Central American Integration System (Sica).
The study covers aspects of political, social, economic, environmental, demographic, regional integration, and the increase of military structures, among others, in the region.
In the last 30 years, the region shows economic and social achievements in key areas of sustainable human development, but from deep levels of lag and an uneven pace of progress among countries, it adds.
Honduras with the highest poverty level
It also highlights that “the insufficiency of the opportunities generated by this performance has made the region a net expeller of population, especially towards the United States. This situation has generated a growing asymmetry between Costa Rica, Panama and the Dominican Republic, the most economically dynamic and most stable in political terms, and the north-central part of the region, the most lagging and with greater instability”.
The research also indicates that “Honduras continues to be the country with the highest level of poverty in the region: eight out of ten households live in that condition, of which two are in extreme poverty”, while “Guatemala is second with the highest incidence, although it has registered a significant decrease in recent years”.
In Guatemala, poverty affected 68.4% of households before the pandemic, and increased to 74.3% during its development. However, 2023 data shows a significant reduction, with 56% of households in poverty, a figure even lower than that recorded before the pandemic.
In the region, only Guatemala and Honduras show poverty levels above the Latin American average, according to the study.
