government and the Ministry of Agriculture. The project
is managed by 15 women from Verapaz who maintain the
chicken coop; gather, clean, and package the eggs; and sell
them at a local market. Participants said the eggs generate
about $44 a day, or $1,300 a month. They earned a small
profit in 2011, but in order to make the project sustainable
for all 15 participants it needs to expand. Given El Salvador’s average per-capita monthly income of $282 in 2010,52
the proposal for the second phase states that in order to
provide an alternative to unauthorized immigration, the
project needs to enable each participant to earn at least
$300 monthly.
This is not the only project of its kind in El Salvador. Diaspora groups and individuals have invested in a few other
projects aimed at producing jobs and income. But the Salvadoran government and major U.S. development agencies
are usually not involved with their creation and operation.
Former Salvadoran-American Chamber of Commerce President Elmer Arias, who came to the United States in 1980
when he was 19, has been supporting diaspora investment
in his native country for decades. Today his Virginia-based
NGO is working with the Inter-American Foundation (IAF)
and to promote productive agricultural projects. Half of the
project funds come from the IAF, 20 percent from the diaspora, and 20 percent from the community. Arias is working
to raise 10 percent from the private sector. This model for
financing development in Central America could be supported at a much higher level in partnerships with U.S. development agencies.
The Northern Triangle nations will need to design their
own alternative uses of remittances, but neighboring Mexico offers an example of how remittances might be used for
productive investment. Mexican government programs that
match immigrant remittances with government funds for
soci []