Fundación Paraguaya’s CEO,  Martín Burt, participated along with other references from the civil society, representatives of the industrial union from different levels and with members of the three State branches, in the first meeting to analyze a comprehensive reform of the State, where one of the main goals is to improve the quality of public spending. The meeting, held at the headquarters of the Central Bank of Paraguay, was also attended by Hugo Velázquez, Vice President of the Republic.

Burt presented a proposal to the different sectors for a permanent State reform that seeks to solve the problems of our country at the root. The specific proposals were; to create a single georeferenced registry of the 1,500,000 Paraguayan households, and to train 8,000 existing public officials to be family extension agents.

“Let’s train 8,000 existing public officials to be family extension agents and to be a one-stop shop for public services in order to really know what each household needs,” he said during his presentation at the Central Bank. The Fundación Paraguaya’s proposal is based on the organization’s experience in implementing the Poverty Stoplight, a Paraguayan methodology implemented in 28 countries around the world and which has already been adopted by other governments to tackle the problem of poverty.

Burt also offered the use of technology to geo-reference and be able to reach families more easily and above all, know what their most urgent needs are and thus help the Paraguayan State, which will save a lot of money in its fight against poverty. “We have technology available to know what each family needs, to avoid watertight compartments and save a lot of state money,” he said.

 Hugo Velázquez, the Vice President of the Nation, said that there is no closed agenda and that they are open to listen and receive collaboration from different sectors of society. “The methodology will be established, I believe that this goes beyond cutting wages, we want it to be included in the 2021 General Budget of the Nation,” he said during this meeting.

Citizen pressure and pressure from various sectors of society led to the announcement by the Government to cut salaries for public officials with higher salaries, at first, for the duration of the COVID-19 health crisis. Fundación Paraguaya’s proposal was handed over to the Vice President, and it is hoped to continue collaborating in the State Reform so that it will benefit Paraguayan families more fairly.