Nutrition and Social Protection project

closed

The Nutrition and Social Protection Project aims to improve Honduras' social safety net for children and youth. The project consists of three components. Component 1 consists of institutional strengthening of the social protection framework for children and Youth. The project supports long term efforts to create a coherent institutional structure to make policy decisions, coordinate implementation and budget allocations, and monitor social protection interventions, starting with the children and youth programs. Component 2 consists of consolidating and expanding the Community Based Nutrition Program, aimed at preventing chronic early childhood malnutrition by strengthening the institutional base and expanding coverage of a community-based program of growth promotion and basic health activities. The first step, with the support of this project, will incorporate an additional 1,000 communities in communities with more than ten children, to reach about 35,000 children under 2 years old and a total of about 85,000 under age 5. Component 3 consists of a first employment program for youth at risk. This component aims to promote the labor market insertion of approximately 7,000 poor urban youths who have abandoned the conventional education system, and who do not work or who work in very low return informal activities. This pilot program is part of a larger effort of the Government of Honduras, and specifically, the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, to construct a system for training and professional development for youth to improve their possibilities for labor market insertion.