The International Commission for Central American Recovery and Development was created in 1987 to analyze development in the region and to make recommendations to the region’s governments and to the international community. The essays in this volume were written by experts in Central American development, economics, politics, and administration who were asked by the commission to synthesize existing knowledge on Central America’s prospects for aid, trade, and institutional reform, and to propose creative approaches to the problems facing the region. The Center for International Development Research at Duke University was chosen to perform the editorial and support tasks for the commission.

The 1980s were one of the most turbulent decades in Central America’s history, a history that has been marked by more than its share of strife and upheaval. The wars, economic hardship, and political unrest and instability that have dominated news of the region have been years in the making, the products of flawed and inequitable economic, social, and political structures.
The International Commission for Central American Recovery and Development (ICCARD) was formed to provide a thorough diagnosis and analysis of Central America’s problems and to draft a comprehensive long-term strategy to move the region from decline to development. In this report ICCARD—through forty-five international experts in economics, public policy, management, and development it assembled for this purpose—attempts to rise above rhetoric and simplistic remedies to focus on well-reasoned, thorough, and realistic approaches to economic and social development.
This volume reviews the unequal access of marginal groups to political and economic participation, the precarious situation of Central American financial institutions, the international debt situation, the prospects for regional political and economic integration, and other aspects of regional development. Each of these challenges is addressed by specific recommendations to the Central American governments, the governments of the industrialized nations, and international organizations.