The global financial crisis has not hit Latin American countries as badly as other regions, mainly because right at the beginning of the crisis these countries could fall back on their own  currency and fiscal reserves. The rural population has developed its own protection mechanisms to cushion crisis situations, as demonstrated by Peru's Sierra: income diversification and above all intensive internal migration are charactistic of this region, where some 80 percent of the population live from agriculture. The national economic plan, which chiefly aims to create jobs, will have little positive influence on rural areas because interlinks between agricultural policy and other policy areas are lacking. The various projects that specifically promote rural areas appear to be more effective. They have already led to improvements in families' living conditions.  However, it is still questionable whether they can help raise peoples' incomes so that they sustainably cross the poverty line. 

 
Augusto Cavassa
Innovación para el Desarrollo
Lima, Peru
acavassa@terra.com.pe