The national social programme of El Salvador, “Solidary Communities”, is an ambitious strategy for social development of the Government of El Salvador, carried out sinc 2005 and considerably extended since 2009. It is supported by the European Union, Spain, and Luxembourg, in the modality of Sectoral Budget Support, and by other donors on a project approach. The Program focuses on the poorest population of the country in 125 priorized urban and rural municipalities. It includes, among others, the payment of familiar conditioned transfers stimulating health and education; a basic pension for the elderly over 70; temporary income support for unemployed with community work; programs for prevention of social and gender violence; study grants for unemployed youth in high-risk neighborhoods, and a strong effort of the State to provide basic services such as water, electricity, and health care to communities that previously lacked them. As a whole, the program sets up the basis for a rights-based generalized social protection system in El Salvador.

LASO participated in the Mid-Term Evaluation of the programme, which highlighted its results and identified opportunities for improvement in its organisation and implementation 2013). LASO also made the systematization study of the Programme for Senior Citizens, one of the key components of Solidary Communities (2014). Finally LASO, together with its partner FUSADES of El Salvador, was selected by LUXDEV (Luxembourg Cooperation Agency) to verify the compliance of El Salvador with the conditionalities of the Sector Budget Support, verifying 18 selected performance indicators covering the whole field of social development (2014-2015).