Publication:
Poverty and Equity Assessment for El Salvador 2024: Improving Lives and Livelihoods

Abstract
This report proposes an agenda for building on gains to re-accelerate poverty reduction among Salvadorans. The last World Bank Poverty Assessment for El Salvador, from 2015, proposed two key policy recommendations: (a) effective pro-poor spending and (b) reduction of crime and violence through better access to jobs and education. Nine years later, the authorities have managed to achieve a substantial reduction in crime and violence and have indicated an intent to build on such progress to establish a path toward an El Salvador where shared prosperity is achievable. In this report, we propose a three pillar structure to address poverty and inequality reduction: jobs, services, and social protection, with a cross-cutting set of primary conditions that articulates this structure.
Link to Data Set
Citation
World Bank. 2024. Poverty and Equity Assessment for El Salvador 2024: Improving Lives and Livelihoods. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/42533 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.
Associated URLs
Associated content
Report Series
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue

Related items

Showing items related by metadata.

  • Publication
    Panama Poverty and Equity Assessment 2024
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-02-12) World Bank
    Panama has been one of the fastest-growing countries in the region, with rapid economic expansion accompanied by significant poverty reduction. Driven by public and private investment as well as labor accumulation, the Panamanian economy grew by an annual average of 5.7 percent between 1990 and 2023, much higher than the regional average of 2.5 percent. This growth contributed to a significant reduction in poverty. Using the poverty line of US$6.85 per day per capita (2017 PPP), the share of Panamanians affected by poverty improved from one in two in 1989 to only one in ten lived in 2023. Nevertheless, Panama remains one of the most unequal countries in the world. While poverty in urban areas was 4.8 percent in 2023, poverty in indigenous regions (comarcas) reached 76 percent—15 times higher. Limited progress in reducing inequality, as measured by the Gini coefficient, contrasts with Panama’s achievements in other areas. Globally, Panama ranked 11th in inequality in 2000, with a Gini coefficient of 53.8. Two decades later, it ranked 8th, with a Gini coefficient of 50.9 as of 2022. This report examines Panama’s achievements and challenges in reducing poverty and inequality to inform policy options. With a special focus on the 2008–2023 period the report documents progress in poverty and equity in recent decades, highlighting access to basic services, expansion of quality jobs, improvement of human capital, and promotion of household resilience as critical policy priorities.
  • Publication
    Paraguay Poverty and Equity Assessment
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-11-01) World Bank
    Paraguay has achieved remarkable progress in reducing poverty over the past two decades. Through dedicated efforts and effective policies, the country halved its poverty rate from 51.4 percent in 2003 to 24.7 percent in 2022. Simultaneously, it cut extreme poverty by half, reaching 5.6 percent. According to World Bank estimates, Paraguay’s middle class has also experienced significant growth, expanding from 24.8 percent of the population in 2003 to 41.6 percent in 2022. Since 2014, however, the pace of poverty reduction has slowed, with most gains concentrated in the 2003–13 period. Economic growth, the primary driver of Paraguay’s poverty reduction, has decelerated in recent years. This slowdown was accompanied by a decrease in job creation and stagnation in real labor incomes. Moreover, a series of adverse shocks between 2019 and 2022, including the COVID-19 pandemic, high inflation, and a sequence of droughts that affected the agricultural sector, further eroded some of the progress made. Despite these challenges, Paraguay has begun to show signs of recovery. In 2023, the country witnessed a 2.8 percentage point reduction in moderate poverty and a decrease of 1.2 percentage points in extreme poverty. This report identifies four main structural barriers hindering poverty reduction in Paraguay and proposes priority policy options that can be implemented to address the country’s pressing socioeconomic challenges and disparities. This Paraguay Poverty Assessment, in conjunction with the Country Economic Memorandum (CEM) and the Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR), provides a comprehensive analysis of Paraguay’s development challenges. By offering insights and policy recommendations based on this analysis, these reports collectively aim to promote inclusive and sustainable growth in Paraguay.
  • Publication
    Mexico Poverty and Equity Assessment
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-02-20) World Bank
    This Mexico Poverty and Equity Assessment reviews the evidence about poverty and equity in Mexico over the last two decades, compares it to comparable international experience, and identifies a set of critical areas of policy intervention to answer the opening question. The report aims at contributing to an open conversation in Mexico about how to achieve this essential policy objective. This report postulates three main policy areas needed for poverty eradication in Mexico: inclusive growth, efficient social policy, and infrastructure to confront vulnerability. The report includes four sections, the first three of which collect evidence about poverty, social deprivations, and vulnerability and how the evolution of these three correlates to patterns of economic growth, social protection policy and territorial development. The fourth section provides some quantitative benchmarks of what it would take to eradicate extreme poverty in Mexico. Poverty in Mexico is defined not only in monetary terms, but also in a multidimensional manner that includes social deprivations. These are social deprivations that often define formal-vs-informal employment, so policy changes that close these carencias, as they are called in Mexico, will also reduce the informality gap. This report documents the evolution of poverty, social deprivations, and vulnerability to poverty. It explains the main forces that have driven this evolution and advises that many of these forces may not operate the same in the future as they did in the past. It provides the basis to argue that short to medium term extreme poverty eradication requires newer policy actions in terms of inclusive growth, more efficient social policy, and investments in physical and social infrastructure to reduce vulnerability. The report indicates that short to medium term eradication to extreme poverty is a major, but within reach, development challenge for Mexico.
  • Publication
    Paraguay Poverty Assessment : Determinants and Challenges for Poverty Reduction
    (Washington, DC, 2010-12) World Bank
    This report provides technical assistance and capacity building on the poverty measurement methodology of the Paraguayan government. The report makes several policy recommendations concerning urban labor market trends and opportunities for employment, rural factor markets and poverty, and ex-ante evaluation of the expansion of cash transfer programs in Paraguay. The report concludes that in order to increase productivity it is important to increase the quality of education and give incentives for the youth to finish their formal education. Also, poverty reduction policies need to be targeted at the rural poor specifically by increasing access to land ownership.
  • Publication
    El Salvador : Poverty Assessment, Strengthening Social Policy
    (Washington, DC, 2005-12) World Bank
    The experience of the 1990s suggests that economic growth has been - and will continue to be - a key feature of El Salvador's accomplishments in reducing poverty. This means that there will be high returns for poverty reduction when the Government of El Salvador takes the necessary measure to reinvigorate economic growth in the 2000s - through policies and investments that: (1) increase education levels of the population, (2) develop the country's economic infrastructure, (3) foster greater technology adoption and local innovation, and (4) improve the investment climate (including making efforts to reduce violence and increase the rule of law). The fact that many of the poorest, most vulnerable Salvadorans have been unable to take advantage of recent growth suggests, however, that it will be increasingly important for El Salvador to put in place a coherent set of policies and investments to ensure that the poor can share in and benefit from future economic progress. To build effectively on past achievements, it will thus be important for El Salvador to craft a national social policy that builds on recent accomplishments to strengthen the human capital of all Salvadorans, and strengthens people's access to markets and basic services. For many of the remaining poor, better access to quality education and health care, and greater access to markets and basic services, such as safe water, will be sufficient to enable them to escape from poverty. Nonetheless, there are others who will still lack the capacity to take advantage of new and emerging opportunities and who will be especially vulnerable in the face of shocks. A third key element of a national social policy will thus be to put in place the instruments to assist and protect the poorest, most vulnerable members of society.

Users also downloaded

Showing related downloaded files

  • Publication
    Global Economic Prospects, June 2024
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-06-11) World Bank
    After several years of negative shocks, global growth is expected to hold steady in 2024 and then edge up in the next couple of years, in part aided by cautious monetary policy easing as inflation gradually declines. However, economic prospects are envisaged to remain tepid, especially in the most vulnerable countries. Risks to the outlook, while more balanced, are still tilted to the downside, including the possibility of escalating geopolitical tensions, further trade fragmentation, and higher-for-longer interest rates. Natural disasters related to climate change could also hinder activity. Subdued growth prospects across many emerging market and developing economies and continued risks underscore the need for decisive policy action at the global and national levels. Global Economic Prospects is a World Bank Group Flagship Report that examines global economic developments and prospects, with a special focus on emerging market and developing economies, on a semiannual basis (in January and June). Each edition includes analytical pieces on topical policy challenges faced by these economies.
  • Publication
    Business Ready 2024
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-10-03) World Bank
    Business Ready (B-READY) is a new World Bank Group corporate flagship report that evaluates the business and investment climate worldwide. It replaces and improves upon the Doing Business project. B-READY provides a comprehensive data set and description of the factors that strengthen the private sector, not only by advancing the interests of individual firms but also by elevating the interests of workers, consumers, potential new enterprises, and the natural environment. This 2024 report introduces a new analytical framework that benchmarks economies based on three pillars: Regulatory Framework, Public Services, and Operational Efficiency. The analysis centers on 10 topics essential for private sector development that correspond to various stages of the life cycle of a firm. The report also offers insights into three cross-cutting themes that are relevant for modern economies: digital adoption, environmental sustainability, and gender. B-READY draws on a robust data collection process that includes specially tailored expert questionnaires and firm-level surveys. The 2024 report, which covers 50 economies, serves as the first in a series that will expand in geographical coverage and refine its methodology over time, supporting reform advocacy, policy guidance, and further analysis and research.
  • Publication
    Global Economic Prospects, January 2025
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-01-16) World Bank
    Global growth is expected to hold steady at 2.7 percent in 2025-26. However, the global economy appears to be settling at a low growth rate that will be insufficient to foster sustained economic development—with the possibility of further headwinds from heightened policy uncertainty and adverse trade policy shifts, geopolitical tensions, persistent inflation, and climate-related natural disasters. Against this backdrop, emerging market and developing economies are set to enter the second quarter of the twenty-first century with per capita incomes on a trajectory that implies substantially slower catch-up toward advanced-economy living standards than they previously experienced. Without course corrections, most low-income countries are unlikely to graduate to middle-income status by the middle of the century. Policy action at both global and national levels is needed to foster a more favorable external environment, enhance macroeconomic stability, reduce structural constraints, address the effects of climate change, and thus accelerate long-term growth and development.
  • Publication
    Women, Business and the Law 2024
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-03-04) World Bank
    Women, Business and the Law 2024 is the 10th in a series of annual studies measuring the enabling conditions that affect women’s economic opportunity in 190 economies. To present a more complete picture of the global environment that enables women’s socioeconomic participation, this year Women, Business and the Law introduces two new indicators—Safety and Childcare—and presents findings on the implementation gap between laws (de jure) and how they function in practice (de facto). This study presents three indexes: (1) legal frameworks, (2) supportive frameworks (policies, institutions, services, data, budget, and access to justice), and (3) expert opinions on women’s rights in practice in the areas measured. The study’s 10 indicators—Safety, Mobility, Workplace, Pay, Marriage, Parenthood, Childcare, Entrepreneurship, Assets, and Pension—are structured around the different stages of a woman’s working life. Findings from this new research can inform policy discussions to ensure women’s full and equal participation in the economy. The indicators build evidence of the critical relationship between legal gender equality and women’s employment and entrepreneurship. Data in Women, Business and the Law 2024 are current as of October 1, 2023.
  • Publication
    The State of Economic Inclusion Report 2024: Pathways to Scale
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-11-20) Arévalo-Sánchez, Inés; Heisey, Janet; Chaudhary, Sarang; Clay, Timothy; Strokova, Victoria; Vasudeva Dutta, Puja; Andrews, Colin
    The State of Economic Inclusion Report (SEI) 2024 explores efforts to scale up economic inclusion programs - bundles of coordinated, multidimensional interventions that support individuals, households, and communities to sustainably increase their incomes and assets - in the context of overlapping crisis. These programs transform the economic lives of the poorest and most vulnerable people, building their resilience and creating job opportunities. The report features data from 405 programs across 88 countries, benefiting over 70 million individuals either directly or indirectly. This marks almost doubling in the number of programs and nearly a 50 percent increase in coverage since the SEI 2021 report. Governments continue to lead in scaling up these economic inclusion programs, covering nearly three-fourths of program participants. However, non-governmental programs have also significantly contributed to the increase in coverage in recent years, in addition to serving as both service providers and capacity building providers for governments. The report offers five important contributions: 1) Positioning economic inclusion programs as crucial for building resilience and providing job opportunities for the poor and vulnerable in the face of overlapping crises. 2) Analyzing the global landscape over the past three years, highlighting the extent to which economic inclusion programs are being customized for diverse contexts and groups, including a cross-cutting focus on gender. 3) Reviewing progress and challenges in the design and implementation of government-led programs, including the interplay with communities, non-governmental organizations, and the private sector. 4) Examining the emerging agenda of designing economic inclusion programs to enhance the long-term climate resilience of poor and vulnerable individuals and communities. 5) Featuring three spotlights that unpack emerging evidence from government-led programs, customization strategies targeting youth, and the increasing role of digital tools and technologies in program delivery. Data from the report are available on the PEI Data Portal (www.peiglobal.org).