This report highlights progress made in implementing the Honduran Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) from the time of its approval by the Government of Honduras in August 2001 to the present. The report monitors the economic and social programs that were defined in the original document and which were revised following consultation with civil society in the First Progress Report and Update of the PRSP. The report discusses that Honduras has thus far achieved approximately 18 percent of the improvement on the PRSP indicators that will be needed to reach to the goals set for 2015.

Manual descriptivo de Honduras.

Since the retirement of longtime dictator Tiburcio Carías Andino (1932-1949), the search for institutional stability in Honduras has led to both democratically elected governments and the imposed discipline of military rule. Social and economic change has contributed to the growth of middle-class urban groups, strongly organized labor unions, and a vigorous peasant movement. The Honduran armed forces, established in modern form only after World War II, filled the vacuum of political power that developed as the Liberal and National political parties failed to address the problems created by change and national development, but the authoritarianism of military rule has been countered by historical patterns of caudillo politics. Despite the revolutionary turmoil that surrounds the country, Hondurans have successfully conducted national elections and installed a freely elected civilian government after more than ten years of military rule. It is within this mix of "traditional" and "praetorian" governing modes that Hondurans have fashioned a style of politics conducive to compromise, which accounts for the country's relative tranquillity today. In this first comprehensive study of contemporary Honduras—its land, people, economy, and politics—to be published in English, Dr. Morris also outlines the historical context that has shaped the society of this now geopolitically important nation and conditioned its political dynamics over the past three decades. His analysis illuminates the characteristics that distinguish Honduras from its Central American neighbors and that may dictate a unique course for its political evolution.