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LOCALWednesday 30 March 2016
ECLAC Calls for Protecting Progress and Preventing Social
Rollbacks in Light of Potential Increase in Regional Poverty
-According to projections capita income of persons
by the United Nations re-
gional organization, 175 in the top 10% of highest in-
million people were living
in situations of poverty in comes was 14 times great-
late 2015 in Latin America.
er than that of people in
ORANJESTAD/SANTIAGO
- Poverty and indigence the 40% of lowest incomes.
rates measured by income
held steady in Latin Amer- In the study, inequality is
ica in 2014 versus the prior
year (at 28.2% and 11.8% also measured accord-
of the region’s population,
respectively) and both ing to education levels in
are estimated to have in-
creased in 2015, according various income groups of
to the report Social Panora-
ma of Latin America 2015 the population. Despite
presented last week at a
press conference in San- important progress in terms
tiago, Chile. In light of this,
the Economic Commission of access and graduation
for Latin America and the
Caribbean (ECLAC) asked rates, particularly regard-
countries to protect the
progress achieved in re- ing primary and second-
cent years and prevent so-
cial rollbacks amid a sce- ary education, significant
nario of lower economic
growth. gaps persist: while 80% of
In absolute terms, the
number of people in situ- young people from 20 to
ations of poverty grew by
around two million in 2014 The Executive Secretary of ECLAC, Alicia Bárcena, and the President of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, 24 years of age in the high-
compared with 2013, total- during a session of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).
ing 168 million persons, of est-income quintile had fin-
whom 70 million were in-
digent, ECLAC indicated. ished secondary school in
According to the organiza-
tion’s projections, in 2015 the document. spending as a percentage dent population) will re- 2013, only 34% of the per-
the regional poverty rate “If we want to achieve the of GDP (6.8 percentage main in effect over the next
likely rose to 29.2% of the first Sustainable Develop- points between 1991 and 15 years, which opens op- sons of the same age in the
region’s inhabitants (175 ment Goal, which calls for 2014) is due firstly to growth portunities for investment
million people) and the in- putting an end to poverty in spending on social secu- in areas such as education lowest-income quintile had
digence rate to 12.4% (75 in all its forms, Latin Ameri- rity and social assistance and health. Nevertheless,
million people). ca must create more qual- programs (3.5 percentage the magnitude of this de- done the same.
The increase in the num- ity employment, with rights points), followed by edu- mographic dividend pro-
ber of poor people verified and social protection, cation (1.9 percentage jected to 2030 is smaller These inequalities, ECLAC
in 2014 occurred basically safeguard the minimum points) and health (1.5 per- than what has been seen
among the non-indigent wage and protect social centage points). in the last 15 years, and contends, become even
poor, and was the result of spending, which is showing In this edition of the Social several countries are close
uneven national results, ris- a slower pace of growth,” Panorama of Latin Amer- to concluding this positive clearer upon crossing
ing in some countries and sustained Alicia Bárcena, ica, ECLAC dedicates a stage of the demographic
falling in a significant num- Executive Secretary of chapter to analyzing the transition and to beginning other variables. If one
ber of others, according to ECLAC. “It is urgent for demographic transition a phase of increased costs
countries to explore new taking place in the region. related to aging. measures, for example,
sources and fiscal mecha- According to data includ- The document launched
nisms of financing that can ed in the report, in 2023 today also analyzes the average monthly wage
ensure the sustainability of the region will go from be- evolution of income distri-
social policy and the prog- ing a “youthful society” to bution and the persistent income according to sex,
ress achieved in the last a “young adult society”; inequalities seen in the ed-
decade,” the senior official in 2045, the stage of an ucational system and in the race, ethnicity and years
emphasized, noting that “adult society” will begin labor market.
between 2002 and 2012 and in 2052 it will be an Between 2002 and 2014, of education completed.
poverty dropped by 15.7 “ageing society”, with sig- the great majority of coun-
percentage points. nificant differences among tries achieved improve- qcan be observed that the
In the early 1990s (1991- countries. ments in income distribu-
1992), social spending According to the organi- tion according to the Gini average wage income of
represented 12.6% of the zation’s estimates, in the coefficient (where 0 means
region’s Gross Domestic majority of Latin American full equality and 1 maxi- non-indigenous and non-
Product (GDP) as a weight- countries the so-called mum inequality). The coef-
ed average, rising to 19.5% demographic dividend ficient went from 0.497 in Afro-descendent men
of regional GDP by 2013- (the period in which the 2013 to 0.491 in 2014, while
2014. working-age population is in 2010 it was 0.507. Despite quadrupled that of indige-
This increase in social greater than the depen- this decline, in 2014 the per
nous women and doubled
that of Afro-descendent
women.
According to the Commis-
sion, 80% of total income
in Latin American homes
comes from work. For that
reason, quality employ-
ment, with rights and social
protection, “is the key to
equality, the cornerstone
of social and economic
integration and a funda-
mental mechanism for the
construction of autonomy,
identity, personal dignity
and an enlarged citizen-
ship,” the study indicates.
