Latin America and the Caribbean countries have risen against the challenge of Poverty Reduction, and shown commendable progress with 8.5% of the population rising to the middle class level in the last decade, but 42.12% still live in the dreads of poverty. IDB via its Division of Social Protection and Health works with people who live below the poverty line or are shunned by society and aims to provide them with opportunities of education and labour. IDB-financed programs help in reducing racial and ethnic inequalities on many fronts. Poverty Reduction requires achieving and sustaining strong levels of economic growth, but that growth will be considered invalid if it does not spread out to all the sections of society. The Bank aims at improving lives of people by increasing nutrition, educational possibilities, fostering social inclusion and maintaining a long lasting and just social …show more content…
The majority of the population which lives in the rural areas is below the poverty line. The Victims and Land Restitution Law was passed in June 2011, where monetary compensation was provided to the ones who were in loss of property due to the conflict and violence involving outlawed armed groups and drug cartels, but Economic Inequality remains an issue, as there still exist many who depend on agriculture as their daily bread and many who are still landless and unemployed . There is a high degree of illiteracy in the rural areas, whereas the urban areas are comparatively more developed and established, but they only comprise of less than 30% of the total population. According to the World Bank, Colombia's Gini coefficient (a measurement of inequality in wealth distribution) was 0.587 in 2000 and 0.559 in 2010, ranking alongside Brazil and Bolivia as the most unequal Latin American countries in terms of wealth
Poverty in the Developing World – Latin America and the Caribbean, (2010). Retrieved June 7, 2010, from
Poverty levels in South America are also very high. Woman in rural areas in South America are make up a big amount of the poorest of the poor (IFAD, 2009). The poorest people are the “Indigenous peasant communities in remote mountain areas in Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador” (IFAD, 2009). Recent economic crisis has led to
“In the 1500s, Spanish and Portuguese colonizers imposed their language, their religion, and their social institutions on the indigenous Americans and enslaved Africans, people who labored for them in mines and fields and who served them, too, at table and in bed” (Chasteen 5). Many people would say this is where inequality in Latin America began, with colonization. However, colonization is just a small piece of the roots of inequality of the region, which actually started with the natives of the lands such as the Incas, Aztecs and Mayans. These three empires ruled most of the Latin American region and did so by conquering other native groups or tribes. The Empires had a ruling class or king that was able to oppress and work his people
Klasen, Stephan, and D., Felicitas. Nowak-Lehmann. Poverty, Inequality, and Policy in Latin America. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 2009. Print.
During the 20th century, Latin America was experiencing a rise in the left due to social inequality. The political left was committed to socialism. Social protests paved the way for the rise to power left. Chileans found themselves without work and ideal living standards due to boom and bust cycles and military dictatorship.
In 40 years, Brazil went from importing most of its staple food such as rice, beans and milk, to being a major exporter of food worldwide. In fact they are 22nd out of 236 in the world for exporting food. Small-scale agriculture accounts for about 70 percent of the country’s food production, as well as a significant share of the country’s food exports. For poverty in the country to be efficiently addressed, these smallholders must play a central role.Two of the main causes of poverty in the country are extreme inequalities in land tenure and a lack of access to formal education and skills training. In recent years, the government has established programs designed to address these challenges, including the 2010 Technical Assistance and Rural
Poverty and economic coincides, as economy grows, then there will be more employment and income growth. The World Bank long-held estimate of the amount of people living with one dollar a day has now increased to one dollar and twenty-five cents (“Poverty Around The…”). Although the daily amount of money a person lives increased throughout the years, it is still not enough. Even minimum wage has to be roughly around seven dollars which is still seven hundred percent more than what people in poverty has to live with. A part of history that cause hundreds of citizen to be in poverty for nearly three and a half years was the Great Depression. The stock market crash lead to a sharp economic decline which forced citizens to lose jobs, translate into
Since Economic growth lifted some people out of poverty, poverty has been one of the major issues in Latin America and still continues to remain an issue after the region had more middle class people than poor people for the first time in 2010. In a recent discovery, one out of five Latin Americans never left poverty, limiting those people with scarce income opportunities. Uruguay, Argentina, and Chile are considered having the lowest percentage of chronic poverty, marking around 10 percent of their population; while chronic poverty in Nicaragua, Honduras, and Guatemala ranged from 37 percent in Nicaragua to 50 percent in Guatemala. From the south of Brazil, chronic poverty in Santa is around 5 percent, making it the best performing country
Poverty, or the inability to afford basic human needs, is an issue that is spread worldwide. There are people everywhere who cannot afford shelter, food, healthcare, or education. It seems easy enough to ignore the bum asking for change on the street, but it becomes near impossible in regions where whole families are begging on the street. This rings true in Latin America and it is extremely frustrating to see social inequality this extreme. This essay will examine how much poverty exists in Latin America, why the amount of poverty is so disproportionate and what can possibly be done to alleviate the amount of poverty in these countries.
According to a 2015 study by The Organization for Economic Corporation and Development, Mexico has one of the highest rates of income inequality in the world which inevitably leads to a sharp contrast among living conditions, agency, and power between the rich and the poor. Mexican society has been stratified since the Mexican revolution. The goals of the Mexican revolution were to disperse wealth but the policies enacted made it difficult to make a living in a rural setting thus serving as a catalyst for a mass emigration to cities where people were could only find shelter in the slums
|Are you aware that 20 million people in Mexico live on less than two dollars a day? Sixty million people, half the Mexican |
This paper will discuss poverty, the different types of poverty and their definitions and who is affected by each type of poverty. It will look at the some of the major reasons why poverty exists and what causes poverty, like such things as inequality, stratification and international debt. Some of the impacts of poverty will also be analyzed from a national and global perspective; things like education, literacy rate, and crime. This paper will demonstrate that poverty affects almost everyone in some form or another and exists because those with power and wealth want and need poverty to exist to force a dependence on the wealthy. A few of the main
The second major reason for widespread poverty in the Caribbean is inequality of income and wealth within the countries. Measurement of income inequality carried out in thirteen Caribbean countries between 1996 and 2002 show significant income inequality. The extent of inequality being greater in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Lucia, Grenada, Jamaica and Belize, all of which are countries with a substantial incidence of poverty. Income inequality generates social inequality and social exclusion. A less unequal income distribution would raise income levels among the poor, transiting some of them out of poverty, thereby reducing the extent of social exclusion and disaffection. Inequality of wealth implies unequal access to financial and physical resources as a basis for income generation. Similarly to income, therefore, a less unequal distribution of wealth would be consistent with a lower incidence of poverty.
Liberalization is a term that has dominated the minds, and governments of Latin America from the advent of the region-encompassing debt-crisis of the 1980s. Many reforms, with the idea of opening up the market and reducing barriers to trade in order to increase growth, control inflation, and reduce social unrest, have taken hold in the region in notable countries such as Mexico. In, “Programs on Poverty and Inequality: Chile, Mexico, and Peru,” John Sheahan explores the reasons as to why liberalization programs have seemingly worked in some countries, and have had lackluster effects in others. Chile, for example, is often cited as the shining beacon of economic example in Latin America, and is also grouped in with the East Asian economies that developed to the level of Western Europe from the 1980s onwards. Conversely, Mexico has had disappointing growth that has never recovered to pre-1980s levels, along with social unrest and failures in governance. This paper will explore the questions: Why does poverty persist so much in some countries in the region e.g. Mexico, and Peru to a lesser extent, and why does it seem effectively controlled in other parts, such as in Chile? Sheahan argues that direct social programs are increasing in popularity as effective forms of controlling the negative effects of liberalization reforms, but that they
For many years, poverty in Brazil has been an issue; it is a key program according to the Brazilian government as of late. The government are finding different ways to address the so-called problem. For instance, there has been poverty alleviation programs and policies that could fix the problem; poverty would continue to decrease in size due to these programs and policies. Alleviation policies and programs tend to gear towards poverty reduction. It brings on more impact when it comes to the government. Poverty alleviation can lead to more tax and asset accumulation. For example, it could supplement tax coverage and increase overall security coverage. It also tends to bring more access to health and education. Alleviation could redistribute certain income through programs. The existence of poverty has trickled down in the past fifteen years. The rate of poverty affected the urban areas as well as in the rural areas of Brazil at roughly fifty percent. (World Bank Studies 2013). This means that poverty problem is being addressed very thoroughly. Poverty reduction remains a challenge, especially in the rural areas. The analysis of poverty is greatly constrained because of inadequacy of the given population data as opposed to urban areas. While alleviation policies and programs emphasizes poverty reduction in Brazil, they can lead to governmental impact, tax and