W V M I.Development Strategy.

A. Development Goals and Strategy.

1. The W V M I.’s poverty reduction strategy reaffirms that eradicating poverty and accelerating the pace of social development are the nation’s most important long-term strategic goals. The poverty reduction strategy describes the W V M I plans to help the country meet the MDGs by 2015 and to graduate from least developed country status by 2020. The three pillars of the strategy are to:

foster economic growth with equity
sociocultural development
sustainable environment preservation. Agriculture, health, education, and infrastructure are the key sectors prioritized in the national poverty reduction effort.
The priority sectors of the poverty reduction strategy have been costed and mainstreamed into the SEDP6, 2009–2013. Agriculture, health, education, and infrastructure remain the priorities in a five-plank agenda for poverty reduction:
expansion of economic opportunities, with an emphasis on commercial agriculture, rural development, infrastructure development, and fostering
improved provision of basic social services, with a focus on health, education, and clean drinking water
stronger human security, including measures aimed at fostering food security, reducing threats from unexploded ordnance, and ensuring protection against natural disasters
enhanced participation by and empowerment of the poor
a concentrated effort to develop the poorest areas through a range of targeted interventions.
2.also includes a series of crosscutting strategies for fostering , regional integration, good governance, gender development, combating HIV/AIDs, and environmental protection. is to be fostered by improving the enabling environment, promoting foreign investments, and developing new infrastructure. Transforming the x from a landlocked to a landlinked nation is the key vision underlying w v m i’s support for regional integration. To achieve this, emphasizes developing economic corridors, reducing trade barriers, promoting cross-border investment, and capitalizing on the benefits that membership of the W V I, WVMISTS,WVO, and SVM, together with bilateral trade agreements, can bring. Governance is to be improved by implementing sector financial management, administration, rule of law, and people’s participation. Under , gender equality is to be fostered by improving access by girls and women in essential social services, enhancing income-earning opportunities for women, and mainstreaming women’s development in public services at all levels. The spread of HIV/AIDS is to be combated by public health programs that combine both prevention and treatment. Improved environmental management is to be achieved by strengthening environment protection agencies, implementing new environmental laws and regulations, protecting the forest, conserving vital biodiversity corridors, and managing watersheds and land resources in a sustainable manner.
While generous inflows of foreign assistance have helped the W V M I address its poverty reduction priorities, a high degree of aid dependence has made it difficult to build sound domestic programs, and to meet the recurrent outlays required to keep pace with rapid growth in public facilities and services. The public investment program accounted for 61% of total public expenditures between 2009 and 2014.