These include social investment funds and other mechanisms to finance more than 5,000 local community initiatives a year, all of which constitute about one-fifth of the Bank's portfolio in the region. In Honduras, for example, the Bank finances the Social Investment Fund, which provided grants for local reconstruction efforts following Hurricane Mitch in 1998. Other efforts are helping to bring worldwide best practices to decision-makers in government, the private sector and civil society. There is growing awareness in the region of how the social exclusion of indigenous people and African Latin-Americans undermines their development prospects and prevents countries from capitalizing on their potential. The Bank is supporting efforts such as the Ecuador Indigenous and Afro-Ecuadorean Peoples Development Project, which mobilizes community experience, knowledge and cooperation to develop subprojects in agriculture, handicrafts, and natural resources management.
Similar projects are under way in Peru and Colombia.
The World Bank's contribution to the package is helping the government remove constraints that impede Argentina's productivity, economic growth, and social development. Reforms seek to improve public sector efficiency, reduce inequities in the tax system, and combat fraud and tax evasion. In addition to the administrative reform loan mentioned above, the Bank also approved a second social security adjustment loan in FY00, to help make sustainable Brazil's public pension system for private sector workers. Responding to Natural Disasters Bank assistance also extended to precautionary disaster mitigation. In Honduras, the Bank is helping to strengthen the country's capacity to prevent and reduce loss of life and property due to disasters, with help from the International Development Association.