Mei 2008: Nieuwsflits El Salvador
From Handelswijzer Midden-Amerika van de Koninklijke Nederlandse Ambassade te Costa Rica
Food crisis in El Salvador
(Source: Prensa Latina)
Malnutrition rates are extremely high as the Central American food crisis hits El Salvador , affecting more than two million inhabitants living in poverty. World Food Programme representative Carlo Scaramella, states that dropping nutritional levels due to the lack of access to basic products. Malnutrition affects the physical and intellectual development of people. 30.7 percent of Salvadorians live with limited economic resources. The current world food crisis has pushed at least 500,000 people in Guatemala and El Salvador into poverty, according officials with the United Nations World Food Program (WFP).
Violence imposes a huge economic burden
(Source: IPS)
Medical care for victims, protection of property and restoring material damages caused by the high level of crime in El Salvador take up a large proportion of state resources. The authorities are failing to come up with a solution for the rising tide of violence. El Salvador is being stalked by an "epidemic of violence" that is draining the population and severely harming the economy, said Rafael Pleitez of the Salvadoran Foundation for Economic and Social Development (FUSADES). It affects foreign investment and triggers human, economic and social costs, especially for the public health service. A 2003 study carried out by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) estimated that violence had cost 1.72 billion dollars, then equivalent to 11.5 percent of gross domestic product. The cost include health and psychological costs, production losses, missed investments and material losses. Official sources say that between 2003 and 2007, more than 16,000 murders were committed, 80 percent of them with firearms, one of the highest murder rates in the world.
