Since being returned to power in 2007 the Sandinista government has many achievements - but one which makes Carlos Fonseca, son of Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) founder Comandante Carlos Fonseca, especially proud is the Councils for Citizens Power movement.

These neighbourhood councils are seen as an expression of direct democracy.

"We believe that citizens do not only elect government representatives but also decide on government policies and what their representatives should be doing," he tells me.

"This is a long-term learning process which implies changes to the country's political culture - as always, when working on something so difficult, there will be failings and these errors are taken advantage of by our adversaries to insist that the project is not viable, but that isn't the case."

The right always fear direct democracy - and they have cause to. The impact of the Sandinistas' social programmes in reducing poverty means that Nicaragua is second only to Venezuela in the speed at which it is reducing inequality.

One of the first things the Sandinistas did after gaining power was to join the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (Alba), and that has been crucial to their revolutionary project.

Through an agreement with Caracas Nicaragua buys oil from Venezuela and pays half the cost within 90 days, either in cash or in food exports such as beans and beef.

The other half is converted into a 20-year loan at 2 per cent interest.

"In the last period of the neoliberal government an energy crisis meant hours of blackouts on a daily basis," Fonseca notes. "It would have been impossible for us to resolve the crisis if we hadn't joined Alba, so it is fundamental for our country."

But it's even more important than that. "Culturally and historically Latin America is one nation," he says. "We should express ourselves as a single country just as Bolivar, Marti, Sandino and Morazan stated.

"Alba and Petrocaribe are part of a continental socialist transformation. This is important not only economically, but ideologically."

Nicaragua invests in social programmes such as Zero Hunger, which has provided support for over 100,000 rural women and their families, and Zero Usury, which supports 130,000 women with low-interest loans and training to set up small businesses, and credit and training in the production of basic grains for small farmers as part of an agricultural drive to improve food security.

"In addition we've renationalised education and health, which are now free. Illiteracy has been cut from 36 per cent to 3 per cent and over 100,000 people have benefited from an affordable housing and home-repair support programme," Fonseca says.

"We're also very proud of the fact that Nicaragua is relatively safe compared to other central American countries, even after demobilising 185,000 soldiers when the war ended.

"The Sandinista revolution did a lot to change the consciousness of society, including the integration of the police force into the community."

A gender equality index by the World Economic Forum recently ranked Nicaragua 10th in the world, ahead of Britain at 18th and the United States in 23rd position.

I ask Fonseca how the Sandinista government has contributed to this.

"For many years the FSLN was the only party whose internal norms included a quota for women's participation for party positions and as candidates for public office," he says.

"It was initially 25 per cent and is now 50 per cent. This has meant a continual increase in women holding public posts.

"We're now proposing that these quotas should be written into the constitution.

"A fundamental part of the revolutionary struggle is the fight against gender oppression including economic and political oppression.

"The government's main social programmes have a strong social vision.

"During the first years that these programmes were exclusively aimed at women it was women who controlled the resources, in order to encourage greater independence on an economic level."

The government leads an alliance between workers and private enterprise.

"In the interests of economic stability and the promotion of our revolutionary project we need private enterprise," Fonseca argues.

"There are almost 70 laws that have come out of consensus, such as the minimum wage, which have contributed a lot to the country's economic stability so investors feel confident.

"It's an alliance in which we defend the interests of the workers while avoiding confrontation.

"In the 1980s this didn't happen because private enterprise identified the FSLN as the enemy.

"But it now realises that Sandinismo is part of Nicaraguan reality. Which is why, pragmatically, businesses understand that either they leave Nicaragua or they learn to coexist with us."

So, what's next? What are the key programmes for the coming years?

"The most strategically important is the interoceanic canal," he says.

Nicaragua has approved a Bill to grant a 50-year concession to the Hong Kong Nicaragua Canal Development Investment Company to conduct a feasibility study on building a 150-mile canal across the country at a cost of around £25 billion.

"There are two key issues related to the canal - the environment and national sovereignty," Fonseca says.

"The primary interest of everyone involved is to protect water resources - which won't happen without the canal. In addition, the canal will guarantee the foundation of our sovereignty which is economic independence."

Construction is due to start at the end of next year and will last approximately five years.

Since 2006, Nicaragua's economy has grown on average by 4 to 5 per cent annually. With the canal it's estimated that growth could reach 15 per cent a year.

"This would represent a major advance for the country.

"It will provide resources which would be impossible to obtain in any other way and will have a huge impact in reducing unemployment.

"All our social programmes to reduce poverty and inequality will continue.

"On a political level we will strengthen the process of direct democracy through citizen participation.

"One of the main tasks will be to raise awareness that to have a better life you need to take part in decision-making about how state resources are used in your neighbourhood or community."

And is there anything we can do to help?

"International solidarity is not only an economic issue. It is about moral and political solidarity.

"Revolutionary support from people around the world who identify with our ideals.

"We have a very welcome problem - in the '80s Cuba and Nicaragua were the only revolutionary novelties in the world so everybody came to support us.

"Now there is Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia and of course Cuba, without which none of what we are doing would be possible.

"So now people have an abundance of options to express solidarity with. This has contributed to Nicaragua getting less attention.

"We obviously welcome not being alone in Latin America, but we do need to remind people that Nicaragua and the Sandinista revolution exist!"

Carlos Fonseca will speak at the Latin America conference in Congress House, London, today. It's not too late to join us - plenaries and seminars run till 5pm, then we'll head over to Bolivar Hall for the Fiesta Latina until 10pm. Celebrate 50 years of revolutionary songs from Cuba, Chile and Nicaragua with Omar Puente and friends - plus Latin beats and drinks