LATIN AMERICA:
And Now For Some More
Ambitious Anti-Poverty
Goals
By Daniela Estrada
SANTIAGO, (IPS) -
Sixty-eight percent of
the time available for
reaching the first
Millennium Development
Goal (MDG), which is to
halve the proportion of
people living in extreme
poverty by 2015, has
expired, and Latin
America has gone 87
percent of the way
towards achieving it.
Countries that have
advanced the most should
now work on halving
total poverty, ECLAC
says.
According to the
Economic Commission for
Latin America and the
Caribbean (ECLAC), 36.5
percent of the total
population of the
region, or 194 million
people, were poor in
2006. Of these, 71
million people, or 13.4
percent, were extremely
poor, that is, living on
less than a dollar a
day.
Fifteen million people
escaped poverty in 2006,
and 10 million overcame
extreme poverty. In
proportional terms,
total poverty fell by
3.3 percentage points
with respect to 2005,
and extreme poverty
dropped two percentage
points.
In spite of this
improvement, the region
is still nowhere near
its 1980 figures, when
the number of poor
people was 136 million,
of whom 62 million
people were indigent.
In absolute numbers,
though not as
percentages, there are
more poor and extremely
poor people in the
region today than there
were 27 years ago, said
ECLAC Executive
Secretary José Luis
Machinea at the launch
of the report "Social
Panorama of Latin
America 2007", in the
Chilean capital
Thursday.
The countries that have
made the most progress
in reducing poverty and
extreme poverty since
2002 are Argentina,
where the levels have
fallen by 24.4 and 13.7
percent, respectively,
and Venezuela, with
reductions of 18.4 and
12.3 percent.
According to ECLAC’s
projections, in 2007 the
regional poverty level
will fall to 35.1
percent (190 million
people), and the level
of extreme poverty to
12.7 percent (69 million
people), or 9.8
percentage points lower
than the 1990 baseline
rate of 22.5 percent.
This result is
equivalent to achieving
87 percent of the first
MDG -- halving the
proportion of indigent
people -- in 68 percent
of the time agreed for
the goal’s fulfilment,
the document says.
This positive result is
mainly because the two
most populous countries
in the region, Brazil
and Mexico, have already
met the first MDG, as
have Chile and Ecuador.
The eight MDGs were
adopted by the United
Nations General Assembly
in 2000, and are to be
fulfilled by 2015, based
on 1990 levels.
As well as halving the
proportion of people
living with hunger and
in extreme poverty, the
goals include achieving
universal primary
education, reducing
child mortality and
maternal mortality
rates, promoting gender
equality and combating
HIV/AIDS.
While on average the
region is well on its
way to meeting the first
MDG, differences between
countries are great,
Machinea stressed.
Colombia, El Salvador,
Panama, Peru and
Venezuela have made
progress equal or
greater than the
expected 68 percent.
However, Argentina,
Bolivia, Honduras,
Nicaragua, Paraguay and
Uruguay have not yet
covered 50 percent of
the distance towards the
goal, the document says.
With respect to the
issue of total poverty,
rather than extreme
poverty alone, Chile is
the only country in
which poverty has been
reduced by over half,
falling from 38.6
percent in 1990 to 13.7
percent in 2006.
Ecuador, Mexico and
Panama have advanced
more than 68 percent
towards halving total
poverty, while countries
like Bolivia and Uruguay
have progressed less
than 10 percent of the
way.
Machinea urged the
countries that have
advanced the most in
terms of poverty
reduction to set
themselves the more
ambitious target of
halving total poverty by
2015.
One of the factors
explaining the downwards
trend in poverty in the
region is sustained
growth in per capita
gross domestic product
(GDP) over the last four
years (2003-2007). At
over three percent a
year, the rate of per
capita GDP growth is
higher than it has been
since the 1970s, helping
to reduce unemployment,
said the head of ECLAC.
In addition, the
dependency rate (the
number of economically
inactive persons
dependent on each
job-holder) has fallen,
and social policies have
been implemented that
involve more spending,
but are more effective.
In the case of some
Central American
countries, the increase
in remittances sent home
by emigrants has also
contributed.
The rise in workers’
incomes seen in only a
few countries did not
contribute substantially
to poverty reduction.
In 2004-2005, average
public social spending
in Latin America stood
at 15.9 percent of GDP,
3.1 percentage points
more than in 1990-1991.
According to Machinea,
social spending by
governments should
switch from being
procyclical (spending
more during economic
booms and less when GDP
has shrunk) to being
countercyclical, in
order to keep in place a
safety net for the most
vulnerable people. This
also means saving more
in periods of strong
economic growth.
The ECLAC report also
says that spending on
education has become
more progressive, that
is to say, it is being
distributed more equally
between different social
sectors. In contrast,
social security remains
highly regressive due to
the prevalence of
contributory systems.
To identify target areas
for social policies,
ECLAC recommends that
countries take the phase
they have reached in
their demographic
transition into account.
Some countries urgently
need to tackle child
mortality and
malnutrition, while in
others the main
challenge may be higher
education or health
systems, Machinea said.
As for the fiscal pact
within the social
contract, Machinea told
IPS that "on average,
tax revenue should be
increased in the region,
by reducing exemptions
and exonerations for
taxes on profits, as
these tend to benefit
the most powerful
groups." Measures should
also be taken against
tax evasion, he said.
Asked by IPS about the
quality of poverty
measurements in each
country, after internal
criticisms have arisen
in many of them,
including Chile,
Machinea said the
problem is that many of
the methods used are
based on out-of-date
statistics. ECLAC is
currently updating its
poverty line, using data
from the latest
household surveys. The
indicators will be
available in 2008, said
the Argentine economist,
who hopes that countries
in the region will
follow suit.
The Social Panorama of
Latin America 2007 also
has chapters on the
quality of education,
information on internal
migration of people
within their own
countries, and an
assessment of health
policies and programmes
for indigenous peoples
in the region. |
