ABSTRACT
Paraguay is a small landlocked country in South America located between Brazil and Argentina. Over half of its GDP consists of primary and agriculture production, or is at least directly dependant on them. Approximately half of the entire population still lives in rural areas, in spite of the accelerated urbanization process in recent years. Overall, approximately 40 per cent of the population lived in poverty in 2006, while extreme poverty affected around 18 per cent of the population, made up of some 6 million people (DGEEC, 2006). Extreme poverty used to be higher in rural areas, however, this trend has reversed since 2005. Although extreme poverty is now higher in urban areas, this is the result of rural poverty that has pushed poor people to migrate to towns and cities.
