For the third phase of the social audit the NGO coalition called the Coordinadora Civil decided to build the Social Audit into an ongoing process of monitoring the implementation ofNicaragua’s poverty reduction strategies. Topics investigated included households’ perceptions of their vulnerability and their capacities to deal with it, as well as aspirations, expectations, degree of confidence in outside agencies and their use of social capital.

The proportion of people who said that their condition was worse than the previous year rose form 37% in 1999 to 45% in 2001. Some 47% of households had a single source of income and for 40% of these that source was unstable.

An English version of the report on phase three of the social audit is available from the library.

The research was funded by the Ford Foundation.