THE WORLD BANK AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN Traditionally excluded groups, including indigenous peoples and Afro-descendant populations, have faced discrimination and limited access to services and opportunities in Latin America and the Caribbean. As a result, these groups tend to suffer a higher rate of extreme poverty than do other populations in the region. Within marginalized groups, social exclusion particularly affects young people, who comprise over half of the poor, and women, who head one-quarter to one-third of all poor households. The high incidence of poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean correlates not only with social exclusion, but also with rising unemployment. Moreover, the quality of employment has declined, with seven out of ten new jobs available in the informal sector. This reality reflects a severe lack of human capital in Latin America and the Caribbean, where income inequality is the highest in the world. On the other hand, LCR continues to face significant development challenges. Even as real incomes doubled over the past five decades in LCR, they tripled in OECD countries and quadrupled among the East Asian “tigers”; growth in LCR has continued to lag behind other regions in recent years. It is important to note that LCR has the highest average Gini coefficients of income inequality in the world. This persistent inequality of opportunity in LCR makes it hard to ensure that growth is broadly shared and also constrains the region’s prospects of achieving that growth in the first place. Social instability has led to increased crime and violence, leaving excluded populations concerned for their safety and unable to thrive. As such, LCR faces important challenges in the area of social inclusion. For example, poverty rates among indigenous and Afro-descendant populations are significantly higher than for white/mextizo populations and there are persistent gender gaps in incomes and employment as well as in access to justice. Second, despite the spread of democracy during the past three decades there is still a widespread sense of powerlessness among the poor in dealing with political institutions. Urban growth and lack of jobs have compounded the Region's social challenges: Relatively high poverty rates in rural areas, together with larger rural family sizes, unequal land distributions and an urban bias in public investment, have contributed to rapid migration to urban areas over the past few decades. However with relatively low and volatile economic growth in LCR insufficient jobs have been created in urban areas to absorb a young, rapidly growing labor force. The combination of rapid migration and low earnings, coupled with inadequately development planning and defined property rights, and relatively low public investment in targeted services and infrastructure, have contributed to burgeoning slum areas in major cities. This in turn has eroded social capital -i.e. the value inherent in bonds of trust, exchange of knowledge and peer enforcement or norms- and thereby reduced social cohesion. What challenges does Social Development try to address? What can we do about our youth and crime? How do we engage the people to reduce corruption? How do we get this population to support our development plans? How do we know what they want? How do we rebuild the peace? How can we build not just cities but communities? How do we deal with indigenous peoples? Inequality? How do we organize communities so they can integrate into globalised markets?
WHAT CHALLENGES DOES SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT TRY TO ADDRESS IN LATIN AMERICA AN THE CARIBBEAN? Social development has evolved substantially over the past several decades. Since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted in 1948, the international community has continued to combat racial and ethnic. In line with international efforts, the World Bank has embraced social development as crucial in fighting inequality and reducing poverty. Recognizing that Indigenous Peoples and Afro-descendant populations have a great deal to offer the development process, the Bank has made a deliberate effort to involve those who have traditionally been excluded. Unfortunately, institutional factors hinder efforts to address social development issues. Key obstacles in advancing social development include: · Social inequity – People who are marginalized because of economic status, ethnic background, race, or gender lack access to the same opportunities available to other citizens. Reducing social inequity is vital to social development.
· Citizenship rights – Although democratic regimes and civil society thrive in many Latin American and Caribbean countries, the political culture tends to exclude the poor from decision-making processes in much of the region. In order for democratic consolidation, poverty reduction, and economic reform to occur, the poor must become empowered to exercise their rights as citizens, participating in policy-making at all levels.
· Judicial systems – Inefficient judicial systems fail to offer poor or marginalized citizens a way to assert their rights, leading people with little choice but to resort to crime and violence to resolve disputes.
· Patronage – Despite decentralization and the rise of NGOs, many services are still delivered to the poor through political patronage and clientalist networks. August 11, 2009. |
RSS