Priority country – Nicaragua
Bilateral relations between Austria and Nicaragua intensified in the early 1980s. It should be mentioned that Austrian NGOs played a very important role since thanks to them, in the early 1990s, Nicaragua became a priority country for Austrian Cooperation. There are more than 30 sister-city or twinning relations between Austria and Nicaragua and there are several cooperation relations between schools.

In the early 1990s, Austrian Development Cooperation was able to articulate many diverse activities into a Country Programme and it brought cooperation with Nicaragua into a structured form. In recent years, fostering rural development and small and medium business have been concretised as the principal themes, as well as healthcare and the development of capacities in the social sector. The Programme has the objective of concentrating on the immediate needs of the most disfavoured population in municipalities and regions of Nicaragua with structural weaknesses and it aims to contribute there to the struggle against poverty by promoting sustainable social, economic, and environmental development. This is in line with the National Development Plan of the Government of Nicaragua.

In recent years, it was also possible to establish more intensive cooperation with Nicaraguan State institutions like MINREX and several others: for example, MINSA, MINSA, MIFIC, INPYME, INAFOR, MAGFOR, INTA, the regional authorities of the RAAN and the RAAS, and the local governments of León and all nine municipalities in the Department of Masaya. In May 2007, the second bilateral consultations were held, allowing for an exchange of information about the priorities of the new government and the present sectors of work of Austrian Cooperation. The consultations will be an important input for the formulation of a new bilateral cooperation programme in the coming years.

Austrian Development Cooperation has three general objectives: poverty reduction, conflict prevention and assuring peace, and environmental protection. Austrian Development Cooperation also has a special interest in all its programmes to promote the equality of women in all social, economic, cultural, and development processes. Along this line, Austria is funding specific projects to promote the rights of women and youth, for protection against violence, as well as for recognition of their social and economic rights; in this way, contributing as well to the democratisation of society.

The 2003-2006 country programme can be found on the following webpage:
http://www.ada.gv.at/view.php3?f_id=9120&LNG=en&version