Nicaragua

Country Overview

On the North Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua, home to most of Nicaragua's Indigenous and African-descent communities, almost three-quarters of the population suffers from malnutrition; maternal mortality rates are twice the national average; and unemployment is a staggering 90 percent. These grim indicators reflect decades of war, government neglect, and US-driven policies that threaten the region's economies, cultures, and biodiversity.

Since 1987, the North Atlantic Coast has had an autonomous government. By law, the regional government controls its own natural resources, administers basic services such as health care and education, and land is collectively owned. Yet the Nicaraguan government has repeatedly denied the North Atlantic Coast the authority and means to exercise such rights, extracting the region's resources for the benefit of national and foreign investors and violating the rights of Indigenous Peoples and African-descent communities.

Free Trade & Food Security

US-driven economic policies, such as the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), have worked to push Nicaraguans further into poverty, exacerbate unemployment and inequality, displace poor farmers and Indigenous Peoples, destroy natural resources and biodiversity, and threaten food security.

Women, who are responsible for feeding their families, and have less access to food in the first place because of gender discrimination, are especially threatened by free trade agreements. Increased privatization of critical services will place access to healthcare, education and utilities such as potable water and electricity even further out of reach for poor women and families.

Healthcare & Education

The Nicaraguan Revolution made great strides in public health, improving immunization coverage, lowering infant mortality, and increasing access to healthcare. But since the electoral defeat of the Sandinistas in 1990, and the onslaught of neo-liberal economic policies, many of these gains have been reversed. Women's reproductive health, in particular, is threatened by the resurgence of the Catholic Church as a force in policy making. Nicaragua's maternal mortality ratio is currently 250 per 100,000 live births, compared to 12 per 100,000 births in the US. One in every three adult women suffers from anemia, putting them at greater risk of infection and hemorrhaging during pregnancy and childbirth. And approximately 20 percent of children under the age of five suffer from chronic malnutrition.

Government spending on education and healthcare has dropped dramatically since the early 1990s. During the 1980s, the Sandanistas spent $40 per person on education and $35-40 per person on healthcare. But in more recently years, Nicaragua has consistently spent two to three times more on debt servicing than on healthcare and education. Half of primary and secondary schools have been privatized, placing the financial burden of education on students and their families. Forty-five percent of the population under 18 does not attend school. And on average, Nicaraguans spend less than five years of their lives in school.