Wednesday, December 01, 2010

41 million Latin American people have escaped poverty since 2002

A new study says that Latin America has lifted 41 million people out of poverty since 2002. The report from Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean gives a breakdown on the amount of progress each country within Latin America made in cutting the poverty rate. The study sites Argentina, Venezuela and Peru as the front runners.

From Monsters and Critics, we find out more of the study's contents.

In Brazil, Chile, Ecuador and Panama the reduction was around 10 per cent, where income distribution was also greatly improved.

'There is a generalized trend towards the reduction of poverty, with the exception of Costa Rica,' ECLAC's executive secretary Alicia Barcena said.

The progress, which still leaves Latin America with some 180 million poor, was accomplished by countercyclical fiscal and social policies.

'This is the first time in history in which Latin America managed to reduce poverty immediately after an economic crisis like that of 2008-9,' Barcena noted.

1 comment:

Pradip Dey said...

Good to learn this picture of hope amidst report that already poured in from Overseas Development Institute that in every aspect of development a significant number of countries have made real achievements. However, as I have pointed out earlier in ID4D and other forum that the things are far from rosy when we look closely towards MDGs Report Card. In some aspects like hunger and maternal and child health, the success is meager. In poverty front, in African countries, the proportion of the population living below $1.25 a day has increased in 21% countries (in 8 out of 38 countries). Nigeria’s poverty increased from 49% to 77% in the 18years from 1990. In Latin America, results are more uneven: whopping 41% (7 countries out of 17) countries, including upper-middle-income countries such as Venezuela and low-middle-income countries such as Bolivia, have experienced an increased or unchanged rate of income poverty.
In hunger front, disturbing fact emerged from Democratic Republic of Congo where prevalence of hunger more than doubled between 1990 and 2004.
MDGs arguably have given us one last chance to make this world beautiful. Let’s harness it to the fullest with reinforced effort from all corners of the world.