In preparing this Country Development Cooperation Strategy (CDCS), the Mission held more than 40 meetings with stakeholders from the Government of the Dominican Republic (GODR), civil society, implementing partners, the private sector, bilateral and multilateral donors, Dominican private sector foundations, church leaders, and United States Government (USG) partners. 1 The Mission made a special effort to talk directly with beneficiaries. We met with beneficiaries in hospitals, HIV/AIDS treatment centers, bateyes (poor, rural communities inhabited primarily by Haitian sugar cane plantation workers), with community leaders and
youth in urban slums, and with clients of community justice houses. The Mission proactively reached out to vulnerable groups, in particular people with disabilities, the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community, women, and youth at risk, so we could hear from
them, first hand, their needs and priorities.