» Improving Access to Financial Services in Mexico:  Access to financial services in Mexico is  limited and costly. 74 percent of municipalities, supporting 22 percent of the country’s population, have no bank branch. About 75 percent of Mexico is urban, yet 85 percent of adults in urban areas have had no dealings with formal financial institutions. Participation rates are particularly low for both rural agriculture and non-agriculture enterprises, and very low for individual entrepreneurs and farmers.  More

» Increasing Competitiveness and Productivity in Mexico:  The Mexican economy has improved over the last decade and extreme poverty has been reduced, but the economy has not grown fast enough to generate a significant number of jobs. Real GDP per capita grew by only 1.2 percent a year between 1994 and 2004. In contrast, GDP per capita grew by 3.3 percent in Chile, 7.7 percent in China, and 5.9 percent in the East Asia and Pacific region as a whole.  More

» Giving Young Farmers Access to Land:  In the last decade, Mexico has undertaken major efforts to transform its rural and agricultural sectors, and to make the rural social sector in particular part of a more dynamic economic environment. The rural social sector consists of “ejidos” and “communal lands” that represent half the country’s land. This is where nearly 70% of the rural population live and where poverty rates are the highest.  More

» Increasing Access to Information in Mexico: Mexico has shown strong commitment to enhancing transparency and accountability.  In June 2002, it became one of the first countries in Latin America to pass a Freedom of Information Act. The law guarantees the rights of Mexican citizens to access public information at the federal level, thus promoting higher levels of accountability throughout society. In order to guarantee the full implementation of the law, the Government created the Federal Institute for Access to Information (Instituto Federal de Acceso a la Informacion – IFAI).  More

» Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Monterrey: Like many developing nations, Mexico faces serious difficulties in managing solid waste.  The country generates about 99,000 tons of solid waste every day, yet only 54.5 % is disposed  under sanitary conditions on landfills and an additional 10.5 % under controlled conditions (not on landfills). Open dumping is the most common solid waste disposal method in small- and medium-sized cities in Mexico.  This creates health, safety and environmental problems in the affected communities.  More