Latin Americans' climb out of poverty threatened; Years of progress are being eroded by soaring prices of fuel and grain.

from the Houston Chronicle

This shows the effect of rising rices i Latin America. The countries that are not large importers of oil have had the worst effects. -Kale

Byline: MARLA DICKERSON

SAN SALVADOR, EL SALVADOR - Are exploding oil prices about to burn Latin America?

With the largest petroleum reserves outside the Middle East, the region has been on a roll in recent years.

Record exports of crude oil, as well as grains, fueled economic growth not seen since the 1970s. The region's stock markets roared. Easier credit spawned a consumer class that snapped up homes and cars.

About 26 million Latin Americans climbed out of poverty between 2002 and 2006, according to U.N. data.

But the same forces behind that new prosperity are now, paradoxically, creating misery.

Surging fuel prices have ignited inflation throughout the region, driving up the cost of food, whose prices were already on the upswing thanks in part to ravenous global demand for Latin America's farm products.

In some countries, a gallon of gas now costs more than a typical day's wages.

The region's food prices have escalated an average of 15 percent over the past year, according to the U.N. Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. Prices of many staples have increased much more than that.

The increases are leeching workers' paychecks and eroding years of progress against hunger and indigence.

Food riots have erupted in Egypt, Cameroon and Burkina Faso, in West Africa. Poor consumers have staged demonstrations in India and Indonesia to protest cuts in fuel subsidies.

"There is a whole combination of factors that are putting a tremendous amount of pressure on the poor," said Carlo Scaramella, who heads the World Food Program in El Salvador. "We haven't had an economic shock of this magnitude in years."

Maria and Jose Lopez, who live with their three children in a two-room cinder-block house perched on a hillside in this gritty Central American capital, are among those feeling the strain.

Earlier this year, they scraped together $148.50 for a down payment on their own place in this hard-luck area, aptly named "Thin City." But their dream of home ownership has vanished. The new priority is simply to eat.

Like other low-income people, they spend the largest chunk of their wages on food. Eggs, rice and beans have all jumped by more than 30 percent in the past few months, cutting deeply into the family's $500 monthly income.

Jose, a laborer, pawned his wedding ring to buy groceries following a short bout of unemployment.

Maria, who works weekdays in the central market downtown, cadged a loan from her employer. She recently took a weekend job as a domestic.

They pulled the two oldest children - Laura, 14, and Kimberly, 10 - out of Catholic school. Only Bryan, 7, is attending classes. The family can no longer afford $17 a month tuition for each girl on top of their debts, child care and ballooning food bills.

GRIM FIGURES

In 2007, at least 500,000 people in El Salvador and Guatemala toppled into poverty, the United Nations' World Food Program estimates.

Across Latin America, an additional 15 million people could fall back among the region's 190 million poor if prices keep rising at their recent pace.

If gas and grocery prices continue their relentless climb, at least 100 million people worldwide may be sucked into the same downward spiral, the World Bank estimates.

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Latin Americans agree further details for Bank of the South

from Eurodad

"A new regional development bank for South America known as the ‘Banco del Sur’ will be launched with an initial capital fund of $10 billion”, finance ministers and other representatives of seven Latin American countries announced in late June. A statement released on Friday by the Argentine Economy Ministry said that the Bank of the South has entered the final stage of its formation. The ministerial meeting in Argentina followed one in Ecuador where technical options for operationalising the bank were discussed.

The decision on the initial capital fund was taken at a meeting in Buenos Aires attended by economy ministers, deputy economy ministers and other representatives from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela.

Also last week - in Quito - the Ecuadorian government and the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs assembled officials from central banks and other relevant ministries of the Bank of the South’s founding governments. They discussed details of how to start up the new Latin American development bank and agreed a detailed outcome document. The meeting also included selected international experts and civil society resource people, including representatives of Latindadd and Eurodad.

In 2007 the “new wave” of Latin American governments decided to set up a regional bank to foster regional growth and fight poverty. They wanted to reassert their independence from global financial institutions and exercise international political leadership. Central bankers want to bring their countries’ money – international reserves accumulated in times of rising oil and commodity prices – back home. Social movements and civil society groups that for decades have been fighting social and economic injustice in the continent and the role of outside institutions are contributing to shape this new development bank. They want to make it a champion of the fight against poverty in a continent torn by appalling economic and social inequalities. One third of Latin American people are officially classified as living below the poverty line.

The big picture of what the new bank should do is clear, but agreeing the details of how it should fulfil Latin American peoples’ hopes and expectations is less easy. It offers a fantastic opportunity to step out from mainstream thinking and think creatively how to build an institution which can go much further and deeper to end poverty in one of the continents with the richest natural resources.

The structure of the bank and the way it will implement issues were discussed in the intense five day discussions last week in Ecuador. Some fifty people gathered to devise options to establish the governance of the Bank of the South, its funding mechanisms, lending instruments and its social and environmental safeguards. There was passion and tension, but also clear results.

Governance and administration

The foundational act of the Bank, signed by the Presidents of the seven constituent countries in December 2007, agreed to grant one vote to each member state. They said there would be no quota system or weighted votes depending on the capital subscribed, thus equalising power imbalances between countries.

Participants at the Ecuador meeting agreed that the Bank of the South should avoid setting up a whole new heavy structure which would be expensive and prone to complicated institutional dynamics. The Bank should instead rely as much as possible on existing country systems and domestic public financial institutions. The multilateral bank would mostly channel loans – and grants – to national development banks and public financial institutions which would keep a leading role in allocating and implementing the projects and programmes supported by the Bank of the South.

Decisions still need to be taken on the executive board of the new institution. Should it be a larger board with representatives from all member states or a smaller one with executive directors representing more than one country? Other issues at stake are whether:

* the board should permanently reside at the Bank’s headquarters or just assemble in Caracas whenever decisions need to be taken.
* the Bank’s staff should be drawn from nationals of its member states (thus supporting regional expertise) or should it open up positions more broadly thus in principle benefiting from the best expertise it could possibly get?
* the Bank should tie its procurement to its member state’s goods and services.

On the latter it is hard to see how the Bank could avoid opening its procurement policy beyond the seven countries that will set it up, but strong arguments were raised on how procurement policies could boost the economies and employment prospects of the participating countries.

Funding mechanisms

The funding mechanisms session at the Quito meeting raised more passion than many others. The major discussion was whether the Bank of the South should raise funds in financial markets – by issuing bonds or opening up to private shareholders.

Based on memories of previous Latin American debt crises, several participants warned against raising funds by increasing the debt levels. These participants suggested that funds could be raised through special taxes on financial transactions, or profits from natural resource extraction. Questions were raised on whether governments would muster the political will to set up such taxes or whether they would yield sufficient volume of funds. Issuing bonds for the Bank of the South could also contribute to the creation of a regional bond market. This could stimulate the use of regional savings and might attract ethical investors from other regions.

There were also concerns on how to generate the special funds, intended to provide highly concessional loans and grants. There was general agreement that ordinary resources should not be mixed with special funds so that the Bank generates a reliable return on its investments and avoids problems such as those faced in the past by the Andean bank. Many emphasised that the Bank of the South should be ambitious in making low-cost resources available for investments with low direct economic or financial returns but high social benefits. Options to replenish the special funds include returns from the Bank’s ordinary loans, grants from international donors; or planned multi-annual replenishments. It may be hard to have this resolved by the time the Bank is initiated although there is a chance that the Bank could benefit from traditional Northern donors who are keen to find multilateral outlets for their aid money and are disappointed with the approaches of the World Bank and other existing institutions.

Lending policies and instruments

Existing multilateral development bank founding charters are general in their aims and objectives, simply referring to broad development purposes. There was widespread agreement in the Quito meeting that the Bank of the South should spell out clearly that the Bank will promote the fight against poverty and inequality. Its founding agreement should specify that it will focus on poverty reduction, reduction of social asymmetries, strengthening the social sector and ensuring food sovereignty and sovereignty over natural resources.

There was more discussion on who should be the channels of the Bank’s financing. It is clear that national governments, regional institutions, and small domestic enterprises should be among the beneficiaries. Larger private enterprises in key sectors may also be financed.

Participants at the meeting agreed that there should be a number of different lending instruments, catering for different needs and objectives. These should range from ordinary loans at non-concessional (or close to market) interest rates for those projects or programmes which were profitable, to concessional loans and grants targeting at objectives with high social returns but not economically profitable. On the latter, concerns were raised that “a bank is just a bank, and not a charity”, so it needs to ensure its financial viability. Having said that, there was a general sense that without putting at risk the Bank’s viability, all efforts needed to be made to make sure that this would be a genuine development bank which would ensure that resources were made available to projects and beneficiaries without access to credit.

The Bank’s loans and grants should not come with any additional strings or conditions. They should also ensure that allocation was made on the basis of need – and avoid the commonly used allocation criteria and indexes used by other multilateral development banks which allocate resources on the basis of the “quality” of a country’s policies and institutions.

Link to full article. May expire in future.

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EU, Latin American leaders meet on trade, climate

from Reuters

By Helen Popper

LIMA (Reuters) - Political differences loomed over a summit of European and Latin American leaders in Peru on Friday, threatening to undermine their efforts to fight poverty and global warming.

Leftist Bolivian President Evo Morales differed with his regional counterparts over free trade in the run-up to the meeting, while Venezuela's Hugo Chavez ratcheted up tensions in a conflict with neighboring Colombia.

Free trade proponents like Peru are losing patience with skeptics like Bolivia's Morales, who accused Peru and Colombia this week of trying to exclude his nation from talks between the European Union and Andean countries.

"We can advance at different speeds, but let's advance," Peruvian President Alan Garcia said on Thursday, saying his country should be allowed to move faster with the EU.

Morales, a former coca grower, fears free trade deals could hurt peasant farmers in his impoverished country. "We want trade, but fair trade," he told reporters in Lima.

The EU is also holding negotiations with Mercosur, led by Brazil and Argentina, and Central American countries.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, one of the first leaders to arrive for the summit, said after meeting Garcia that the EU was "open, and willing to make the path easier" on trade.

Merkel made no mention of a spat with Chavez, who this week called her a political descendant of Adolf Hitler for implying he had damaged relations between Europe and Latin America.

Chavez frequently insults conservative leaders, especially U.S. President George W. Bush. At a summit in Chile last year, Spain's king told him to "shut up."

Chavez is also embroiled in a dispute with Colombia that raised the specter of war in the Andean region in March. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe accuses him of supporting the leftist FARC guerrillas, and soon before leaving for Lima, Chavez said he was reviewing diplomatic ties with Bogota.

Such feuds could dominate the fifth such gathering of leaders from Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean.

They may also struggle to find common ground on how to fight cocaine trafficking, as well as the use of food crops to make renewable biofuels as an alternative to fossil fuels.

Brazil is an advocate of the so-called greener fuels, but many poor countries blame them for pushing up food price.

However, the poor nations are increasingly worried about climate change and say rich states must cut carbon emissions.

Peru created an environment ministry this week to help it cope with the impact of rising global temperatures, which are melting its Andean glaciers. Peruvian delegates to the summit will push for more concrete measures to combat climate change.

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EU, Latin American Leaders Voice Concern over Food Prices

from Deutsche Welle

The EU-Latin America-Caribbean summit stressed in its final declaration Friday, May 16, in Lima that participants were "deeply concerned by the impact of increased food prices," citing troubled Haiti as an example.

"We agree that immediate measures are needed to assist the most vulnerable countries and populations affected by high food prices," the Lima Declaration said.

European Union Foreign Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said in the Peruvian capital that soaring global food prices constitute "a regional challenge." The EU has approved a package worth 117.25 million euros ($183 million dollars) for food aid around the world, she said.

Signed by 60 countries at the end of the meeting, the declaration focused on the fight against poverty and climate change and expressed support for Haiti.

Focus on need in Haiti

Haiti is the poorest country in the Americas, with 70 percent of its nearly 9 million people living in poverty. Six people were killed and a further 268 injured last month in Haiti during riots over high food prices, and the prime minister was forced to resign over his handling of the crisis.

Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) President Luis Alberto Moreno, who also attended the summit, noted that his institution has granted loans for $27 million to Haiti to keep down food prices and has created a special fund to improve agricultural productivity, strengthen social networks and develop new technologies.

The Lima Declaration stressed "the efforts by the Haitian government and people to revitalize the state institutions and combat poverty, inequality and social injustices," while acknowledging the need for "urgent and effective continued action by the international community on behalf of rehabilitation and development in Haiti."

Call for distribution of wealth

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero called on Latin America to implement "fairer" income distribution policies.

"Overcoming poverty, inequality and exclusion is crucial for the attainment of social cohesion, for sustainable development and for the effectiveness of our bi-regional partnership," the declaration stressed.

"There has to be an income distribution policy that is fairer than the current one in Latin America, and a social policy of cooperation for development that tackles basic structural problems," Zapatero said. "Social spending is also productive spending. Social investment generates wealth."

Economy linked to climate change

Peruvian President Alan Garcia addressed the other intended focus of the meeting, climate change, and mentioned an initiative to tax oil and natural gas to raise money to pay for reforestation.

The final declaration stressed that "environmental degradation and climate change seriously affect" economic growth, "hitting the poor hardest and seriously threatening the prospects" for the world's future.

Of the delegations present at the summit at the National Museum in Lima, 37 were lead by prime ministers or heads of state. Some key European leaders were conspicuously absent, including French President Nicolas Sarkozy and prime ministers Gordon Brown of Britain and Silvio Berlusconi of Italy.

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Top artists unite in historic concerts to fight child poverty in Latin America

A spectacular lineup of performers including superstars Shakira, Los Tigres del Norte, Juanes, Juan Luis Guerra and Ricky Martin will join tonight in a call-to-action to support millions of children living in poverty in Latin America.

"El Concierto Por Los Niños" ("The Concert For The Children") is organized by ALAS (América Latina en Acción Solidaria), and will take place tonight simultaneously in Mexico and Argentina

Some ALAS co-founders, including artists Shakira and Miguel Bosé; Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim Helú and philanthropist Howard Buffett, announced a commitment of more than $200 million to address the needs of the more than 32 million poor children in the region.

The concert features some of Latin America's leading artists such as Maná, Alejandro Sanz, Calle 13, Carlos Vives and Fabulosos Cadillacs.

Univision.com will present live streaming of portions of El Concierto Por Los Niños, which will broadcast it in the near future on the Univision television network.

Tonight's free concerts are expected to attract over 300,000 fans.

According to the ALAS' website, the following artists will participate:

Mexico City - Plaza de la Constitución, (Zócalo): Aleks Syntek, Ana Torroja, Babasónicos, Chayanne, David Bisbal, Diego Torres, Emmanuel, Juan Luis Guerra, Juanes, Los Tigres del Norte, Maná, Lucero, Miguel Bosé, Ricardo Montaner, Ricky Martin, Timbiriche & Tania Libertad

Buenos Aires - Costanera Sur: Alejandro Lerner, Alejandro Sanz, Calle 13, Fito Paez, Gustavo Cerati, Carlos Vives, Fabulosos Cadillacs, Mercedes Sosa, Jorge Drexler, La Portuaria, Paulina Rubio, Pedro Aznar And Shakira.

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Food prices focus at Peru summit

from the BBC

By Dan Collyns

Leaders from 50 European, Latin American and Caribbean nations are meeting in Peru to address poverty and the rise in world food prices.

There have been few signs of compromise in trade negotiations ahead of the summit. Talks will be held in private.

Simmering regional conflicts in Latin America threaten to overshadow any final agreement.

Some 50,000 police have been drafted in for the summit, the fifth meeting of its kind in 10 years.

Even before his arrival in Lima, Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez has already ruffled feathers both in Latin America and Europe.

Free trade push

He has upped his hostile rhetoric towards Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and he has accused the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, of being supported by the same German political right as supported Adolf Hitler.

This does not bode well for his talks with the heads of state on Friday when they meet to hammer out their final declaration.

This is probably why Peru's government has made sure that all the meetings are being held behind closed doors.

Political divisions within Latin America are also holding up trade negotiations.

The European Union wants the region to open up their markets, but several Latin American nations are extremely resistant.

Britain's Foreign Office Minister for Latin America, Kim Howells, said it would be a mistake not to liberalise trade.

"In a number of Latin American countries there's a rhetoric which is putting off investment in those countries, no question about it, and I don't think it's doing anybody any good," he said.

"It's certainly not doing the people of those countries any good, but the way to solve it is through dialogue and by keeping our trading markets open."

Direct negotiations

Bolivian President Evo Morales is probably one of those dissenting voices.

On touching down in Lima, he went straight to an alternative forum known as the People's Summit where he played in a football match, scoring a goal. He showed his solidarity with the indigenous and labour groups which had organised the alternative summit, before speaking at the official event.

He suggested Latin American countries hold referendums on whether they would accept a free trade agreement with the EU - which he described as an instrument of domination.

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ALC-UE Summit to Tackle Food Crisis

from Inside Costa Rica

World crisis on rising in food prices that, like all calamities, hardest hits poor people, came into the agenda of coming Euro-Latin American Summit Eurolat during recent hours.

The addition of that topic to the agenda of the fifth Summit of Latin America and the Caribbean or European Union (ALC-UE) was announced by Foreign Minister Jose Gracia Belaunde on Friday, in the middle of much international concern on the rising food crisis.

The topic is to be tackled as main in the summit, despite not appearing in the official agenda, which only considers the fight against poverty, social inclusion, climatic change and energy problems, the Minister indicated.

It is a subject that has acquired particular seriousness in the last months, "Garcia Belaunde indicated in a visit to the Museum of the Nation, to headquarter the Summit to take place on Friday and Saturday.

Food crisis has emerged due to food shortage and the increase of food prices, worsened by the abandonment of food harvesting to dedicate earth to produce consumptions for bio-combustible.

Another point to tackle, not present in the agenda, but present in the Summit will be the conversations between Colombia and Ecuador, in search of solutions to the crisis between both countries, since the recent Colombian military attack to Ecuadorian territory.

Garcia Belaunde affirmed that Ecuador Foreign Minister Jose Valencia and Colombian Camilo Reyes will meet here within the framework of the Summit, as part of a process of approach supported by the Organization of American States.

In this event of Heads of Delegation, to happen Friday 16, 46 Heads of State will participate, on a total of 58 delegations.

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ECLAC warns of severe poverty in region if food crisis not solved

from Caribbean 360

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, A senior official of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) has warned that unless urgent measures are taken to reduce the effects of rising food prices, the cases of extreme poverty will rise in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Executive Secretary José Luis Machinea said that the steep and persistent rise in international food prices has been particularly hard on the poorest in the region, worsening income distribution.

ECLAC has estimated that a 15 per cent rise in food prices will increase indigence by almost three points, from 12.7 per cent to 15.9 per cent. This means that elevating food prices will lead another 15.7 million Latin Americans to destitution and a similar number will also fall under the poverty line, the Commission noted.

However, according to the ECLAC research, if household incomes were to go up by 5 per cent, similar to the average inflation rate in the region, nearly 10 million people would still become indigent due to price hikes, and a similar number would increase the ranks of the poor.

"This is a dramatic situation for a large number of people," Mr Machinea said.

The ECLAC data reveals that the scenario worsens when rising fuel prices are included in the picture, as they push up the price of transportation and public utilities.

"In this context, it is a priority to implement and/or maintain policies focused on diminishing those effects," Mr Machinea pointed out.

He recommended taking measures to buffer food price increases in domestic markets, including reducing tariffs and/or consumer taxes, and/or implementing initiatives to improve income, including subsidies directed at certain sectors, or raising existing subsidies.

Noting that the high food prices "are here to stay", the ECLAC Executive Secretary suggested that countries design medium and long range proposals to increase supply and productivity in a sustainable manner, as well as maintain specific policies focused on low-income sectors.

He also urged developed countries, and mid-income net food exporters, to make an exceptional contribution to programmes and agencies such as the United Nations World Food Programme, which can deliver emergency aid to populations at risk.

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Retiring a Cellphone? Recycle it, and fight poverty in Latin America

from the Dallas Morning News

Recycle cellphone, fight poverty in Latin America

At its best, a "think globally, act locally" effort ties together what happens across the globe with what happens across the street. That's the aim of a local recycling project designed to use discarded cellphones in Dallas to help women lift themselves from poverty in Latin America.

The Chiapas Project is focusing its Earth Day campaign this year on the millions of tons of electronic waste, a rapidly growing environmental threat around the world. Old computers, printers and cellphones, with their lithium batteries, end their lives as potential time bombs in landfills. A single cellphone, for instance, contains eight toxic metals – including lead, mercury and arsenic – all of which are capable of polluting land and water.

Some cities and states have pushed policies requiring makers of electronics and computers to participate in take-back recycling programs; several countries have enacted laws to prevent themselves from becoming e-waste dumps.

The Chiapas Project, a nonprofit Dallas organization, is asking corporations, universities and high schools to pledge to collect used cellphones and printer ink cartridges. The items will be refurbished and sold overseas to help fund micro-loan programs in Latin America. The drive, in conjunction with the Grameen Foundation, kicks off Jan. 22 and will run though Earth Day, April 22.

The loans, which are usually less than $100, go to women to establish or expand small businesses. In parts of the world where families live on just a few dollars a day, these loans are highly effective tools to pull people out of poverty. Not to mention that the seed money results from an effort to protect the planet.

What a deal – an act of environmental common sense that also strikes a blow against poverty.HOW THE PROGRAM WORKS

Dangerous e-waste ...

• One cellphone in a landfill can pollute up to 132,000 liters of drinking water.

• Cellphones contain at least eight toxic substances, including arsenic, lead and mercury.

• In the U.S., more than 500 million cellphones have been retired.

• An additional 10 million additional cellphones are dumped each month.

... can be recycled for good

• Typical Latin American families earn less than $2 a day.

• With as little as $50, a family can start a new business and a new life.

• The micro-financing repayment rate is about 98 percent.

For more information on how to participate in the Chiapas Project's "recycle to eradicate poverty" program, visit

http://chiapas-project.org.

SOURCE: The Chiapas Project

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Poverty Rates Drop in Latin America

from Yahoo Business News

UN: Economic Growth Leading to Lower Poverty Rates in Latin America, Caribbean

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Strong economic growth pushed the number of people living in poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean below 200 million for the first time in more than 15 years, a U.N. commission reported Thursday.

The number of poor decreased by 3.3 percentage points between 2005 and 2006, falling from 209 million -- 39.8 percent of the region's population -- to 194 million, or 36.5 percent, the U.N.'s Economic Commission for Latin America said in a report.

About 71 million people, or 13.4 percent of the population, lived in extreme poverty in 2006, down from 15.4 percent in 2005.

The commission defines "extreme poverty" as households with incomes insufficient to provide food for all family members, and "poverty" as 1.75 times that income in rural areas, and double that income in cities.

"As a region, Latin America and the Caribbean is well-positioned to meet the first target established for the U.N. Millennium Development Goals of halving the 1990 extreme poverty rate by 2015," the Santiago, Chile-based commission said.

According to the report, "Social Panorama of Latin America 2007," a number of countries, including Ecuador, Mexico, Brazil and Chile have already met that goal.

Latin America's economy has grown more than 3 percent a year since 2003 -- the greatest per person GDP growth since the 1970s -- helping to slash unemployment and poverty levels in a majority of countries, the report said.

Extreme poverty is expected to drop to 12.7 percent, compared to a peak of 22.5 percent in 1990, by the end of 2007, the report said. Overall poverty will fall to 35.1 percent of the population by year's end, down from a peak of 48.3 percent in 1990.

Even with those declines, about 190 million people will continue in poverty -- 68 million of them in extreme poverty, the commission said.

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UN chief calls for action on climate change, poverty during visit to Chile

from the International Herald Tribune

SANTIAGO, Chile: U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for urgent action to fight global warming and poverty during a visit to Chile on Thursday, saying climate change was one of his top priorities as head of the world body.

Ban arrived in Chile on the second leg of a 12-day trip that will also take him to Antarctica. His first stop was in Argentina.

In Chile, the U.N. leader attended a round table on "The Global Partnership for Development" with President Michelle Bachelet and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.

"We must be actively engaged in confronting the global challenge of climate change, which is a serious threat to development everywhere", he said at the meeting. "Galvanizing international action on global warming is one of my main priorities as Secretary-General."

Ban also urged developing countries to "continue to create a favorable environment for long-term and equitable economic growth."

He recalled that at the Millennium Summit seven years ago, world leaders "pledged a monumental struggle for lasting development, improved health and education, gender equality and environmental sustainability."

But "today, almost one billion people on our planet still live on less than one dollar a day. Millions of children die every year before reaching their fifth birthday from causes associated with malnutrition. Malaria, AIDS and other infectious diseases are taking their toll on countries that can least afford it," he said.

"Clearly, we are facing an emergency. And we need emergency action," he added.

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Bachelet makes call to fight poverty at summit of Spain, Portugal and Latin American nations

from The International Herald Tribune

SANTIAGO, Chile: Chilean President Michelle Bachelet on Thursday opened a gathering of leaders from Latin America, Spain and Portugal with a call for renewed efforts to fight poverty.

Bachelet calling on the 22 participating governments to increased concern for social issues and poverty while much of the region is experiencing economic growth.

"This a moment to face the new challenge of our region, the postponed challenge of reaching a social pact," Bachelet said, inaugurating the Ibero-American Summit.
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Also speaking at the ceremony, U.N Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said "social cohesion is essential to face the challenge of climate change."

Summit leaders will sign a region-wide social security accord that would allow migrant workers in Latin America, Spain and Portugal the transfer of social security benefits between their nations, a measure that would benefit nearly 6 million workers, according to Chilean Foreign Minister Alejandro Foxley.

Foxley also said the participating countries will work over the next year on a series of measures to ensure full respect of the rights of migrants.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was to arrive early Friday despite protests at home against the constitutional reforms proposed by his government.

Scuffles broke out in Santiago when Ivan Moreira, a right-wing Chilean legislator, arrived at the Venezuelan embassy with a letter saying he opposed Chavez' visit. He was met by a group of Chavez' supporters led by socialist Sen. Alejandro Navarro. Police quickly broke up the altercation.

Presidents attending the summit are expected to condemn terrorism and call for an end to the U.S. embargo against Cuba.

The presidents of Mexico and the Dominican Republic were not attending the summit in order to direct recovery efforts after flooding in Mexico's Tabasco state and the destruction wrought by Tropical Storm Noel.

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Bush presses Congress to pass Latam trade agreements

from Yahoo News via Reuters

By Doug Palmer

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Failure to pass free trade agreements with Colombia and Panama would damage U.S. standing in Latin America, President George W. Bush said on Tuesday as he urged Congress to approve both pacts soon.

"Champions of false populism in the region are watching Congress. They will use any failure to approve these trade agreements as evidence that America will never treat democracies in the region as full partners," Bush said in an apparent swipe at Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a foe of the United States.

The House of Representatives is expected to approve a free trade agreement with Peru on Wednesday, setting the stage for the Senate to give final congressional approval in coming weeks.

However, the trade pact with Colombia has faced strong opposition because of Democratic party concerns about that country's history of violence against trade unionists and their belief that Colombian President Alvaro Uribe hasn't done enough to put the killers of trade unionists in jail.

The Panama pact has run into trouble after that country's National Assembly chose as its leader a lawmaker wanted in the United States on charges he murdered a U.S. soldier in 1992.

U.S. officials have stopped short of publicly demanding that lawmaker, Pedro Miguel Gonzalez, step down but have repeatedly expressed disappointment he was elected.

Bush urged both Democratic and Republican lawmakers to solidly back the Peru agreement, and then turn to votes on the Panama and Colombia agreement "as soon as possible."

"It's not acceptable to pass one trade agreement and let the others languish. It's not fair to pick out one country and not support the trade agreement with the other two," Bush said.

Although the Peru agreement appears headed for victory, House Democrats in charge of trade legislation say that took a huge amount of work. Many party members, especially those elected to the House for the first time last year, are wary of trade deals, which they believe depress wages and cost American jobs.

Bush also called on Congress to pass a free trade agreement with South Korea, which many senior Democrats oppose. They say its auto trade provisions are too heavily weighted in favor of South Korea, a major auto exporter.

The White House has defended the deal and points to a broad array of farm, manufacturing and service industry groups that hope to see it ratified before Bush leaves office in early 2009.

Bush also repeated his support for reforming and improving federal trade adjustment assistance to help workers who have lost their jobs due to imports or a factory moving overseas, despite his threat to veto a bill passed last week by the House.

The House proposal would extend the program to the service sector -- which accounts for about 80 percent of U.S. employment -- for the first time and also allow public sector employees to apply for the aid.

"If a job goes overseas, some family hurts in America and I understand that. We can help and that's why I believe in trade adjustment assistance," Bush said. "I want the program to focus on those who have lost jobs as a result of trade."

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Congress wants to send aid to Americas

from The Miami Herald

By LESLEY CLARK
lclark@MiamiHerald.com

WASHINGTON --
Latin American countries and the Caribbean -- but not Cuba -- would get an infusion of $2.5 billion over the next 10 years to help reduce poverty and expand the middle class under a bipartisan Congressional proposal that has the support of the Senate's two Cuban-American lawmakers.

Republican Mel Martinez of Florida teamed up with Democrat Bob Menendez of New Jersey on Thursday to introduce a bill they said would fund programs to improve education, housing, healthcare and economic development in a region where 40 percent of the population lives below the poverty line.

''In an age of globalization, we are inextricably linked to the rest of the world, and to no people are we more closely connected than our neighbors in Latin America,'' said Menendez, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on international development and foreign assistance.

''This region has enjoyed the growth of democracy, but not the fruits of economic opportunity,'' Martinez said.

Menendez, who pushed similar legislation in past years as a member of the U.S. House, said the aid is in the United States' best interest, suggesting that it could help create a greater market for U.S. goods as well as curb illegal immigration by improving economic and political conditions.

The Washington Office on Latin America, a liberal research and advocacy organization, welcomed the legislation, noting that poverty, inequality and social exclusion are the three biggest problems facing Latin America and the Caribbean.

Under the proposal, the money would be split between the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Inter-American Development Bank. Countries interested in participating would be required to contribute 10 percent of the cost of a project and a matching fund would be established for private-sector contributions.

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Cisneros urges public, private attack on poverty

from the Miami Herald

Venezuelan business leader Gustavo Cisneros proposed a public-private summit to tackle poverty.

By CASEY WOODS AND JACQUELINE CHARLES
jcharles@MiamiHerald.com

Venezuelan media mogul Gustavo Cisneros called on Latin America's private and public sectors to meet in Miami next year to help eliminate poverty in the region by giving the poor the tools they need to get out of misery and stop electing populist leaders.

Cisneros, a controversial figure in Venezuela, never mentioned President Hugo Chávez by name during his speech Friday and took several jabs at U.S. policy toward Latin America.


But before going into his prepared speech at The Miami Herald Americas Conference at the Biltmore Hotel, Cisneros answered claims that he had cut a deal with Chávez to obtain a license to keep his Venevisión TV network on the air, even while the government refused to renew another TV station's license and threatened others with closures. Chávez has accused several privately owned TV stations of backing a brief coup against him in 2002.

''No deal for a license was proposed, discussed or made,'' Cisneros said. ''Venevisión is neither an opposition station or government station but an independent station trying to cover the conflict between them fairly.'' In fact, he said, he plans to appeal to Venezuela's Supreme Court the government's decision to give Venevisión -- now the largest private network in Venezuela -- a five-year extension of its license instead of the 25 years it requested.

Before Cisneros's luncheon address, two small groups of mostly Venezuelans and some Cuban Americans lined up outside the hotel. One group of 10 tied red bandannas across their mouths to symbolize self-censorship. Another group of 14 held signs that said, ''Don't close Venevisión,'' and ``Cisneros supports democracy.''

Though Cisneros touched on the issue of free media in his speech, most of it was focused on poverty and U.S. policy.

''What is the United States solution to Latin America's poverty, inequality and lack of education?'' Cisneros asked. ``Could it be a 2,000-mile wall separating Mexico from the United States? How could a country that is the world's best example of progress produced by globalization believe that a wall between it and its best trading partners can lead to anything but trouble?''

Cisneros said it is time for the hemisphere's wealthiest to begin to teach the poorest about wealth creation.

''Together, if we can do half as well as China did in the last generation, there will be no poverty in Latin America by 2025, and we will all be living in full democracies, respecting everyone's free speech,'' Cisneros said.

Ernesto Ackerman, head of the South Florida group Independent Venezuelan American Citizens, said he was not impressed. ''How can you not take a position when the country is at the point of being destroyed by Chávez?'' he asked.

But Allen Morris, a Miami-based commercial real estate developer, applauded Cisneros' proposal for a summit of Latin American private and public-sector leaders to tackle poverty.

''I am hoping they can get past self-interest and to focus energy, thought and capital into this so needful area of Latin America, which will also be protection from political instability and the resurgence we see in despotism,'' he said.

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Romney says free trade needed to combat Latin American poverty

from the Boston Herald

By Associated Press

MIAMI- Free trade is key to ending Latin American poverty, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said Saturday while courting support from the Cuban-American and growing Venezuelan-American communities.

"Trade lifts all nations that participate," Romney said when asked how he would end poverty and other conditions that have given rise to leaders such as Venezuela’s president, Hugo Chavez, who has been a close ally of Cuba’s Fidel Castro.

Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, noted that the Bush administration had sought free trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and Peru, but the Democratic-controlled Congress failed to approve them.

"We’d like to see more agreements, not fewer, to improve the economic well-being of our neighborhood," he said.

Later, Romney criticized Democrat Barack Obama for saying last week that he would meet with the leaders of Iran, Venezuela, Syria and Cuba.

Romney told 350 people at a Seminole County GOP fundraiser Saturday that the next president should meet with friendly nations first.

"Surely the next American president would want to reach out to our friends around the world, particular here in our own hemisphere," he said, specifically mentioning Colombia and Mexico. "We want to reach out to these people, re-establish our relationships and trust."

Obama was asked during a debate last week if he would meet - without precondition - with the leaders of Cuba, North Korea, Syria, Iran and Venezuela. The Illinois senator said he would.

Romney said he would not restore relations with Cuba until it had free elections, political prisoners were freed and individual rights were restored.

South Florida’s Venezuelan-American community holds far fewer votes than its Cuban-American counterpart. But it is growing, has cash and has a strong influence in South Florida’s Spanish-language airwaves. More than 80,000 Venezuelans live in Florida, roughly half of all Venezuelans in this country, according to the U.S. Census.

Romney said Chavez’s push to nationalize some Venezuelan industries has cooled international interest in Latin American investment, and the U.S. must show its commitment to the region.

"Following 9/11, we understandably focused our attention on the Middle East and have not paid enough attention to our interests in the region, our own hemisphere," he said.

Romney also spoke to veterans of the ill-fated 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion at their small museum in Miami’s Little Havana neighborhood and promised to seek out their intelligence expertise on Cuba if elected president.

But it wasn’t his foreign policy as much as his opposition to abortion and emphasis on family that supporters said they found attractive.

"Everyone talks about family values, but Romney has demonstrated them with his five sons and his long marriage," said Adam Roig, 51, who works in medical technology.

Meanwhile, both Romney and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani will miss a live national televised debate Sept. 17 sponsored by CNN.

As part of an arrangement with the video-sharing Web site YouTube, questions for the debate would come from the online video community, an element Romney seems uneasy about.

"I think the presidency ought to be held at a higher level than having to answer questions from a snowman," Romney said earlier this week, referencing a Democratic event held in South Carolina on Monday that included a question about global warming from a snowman.

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Remittances to the Caribbean and Latin America to top $100 billion a year by 2010, says IDB

from Caribbean Net News

GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala: Remittances to the Caribbean and Latin America will continue to grow in coming years and surpass $100 billion a year by 2010, according to the Inter-American Development Bank’s Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF).

MIF Manager Donald Terry on Sunday presented the estimate for the money transfers made by Latin American and Caribbean migrants at a news conference held here on the eve of the annual meeting of the IDB Board of Governors, which convened here Monday and Tuesday.

“Given present economic and demographic trends in Latin America and the Caribbean and in industrialized countries, remittances will continue to grow in volume over the next few years to more than $100 billion a year by 2010,” he said.

For the IDB and the MIF, added Terry, this growth is not a cause for celebration because it reflects the fact that the region cannot generate sufficient income opportunities to prevent millions of people from migrating.

Nevertheless, he said, remittances will continue to flow and already exceed both foreign direct investment and overseas aid to Latin America and the Caribbean, helping millions of families to escape poverty.

“The challenge for the countries in this region, and for institutions such as the IDB and the MIF, is to find ways so these flows may have a greater development impact by offering migrants and their families more options to get more out of their money,” Terry said.

The IDB and the MIF support programs to expand the economic impact of remittances by encouraging financial institutions to handle these flows so that people who send or receive money transfers may build credit histories and gain access to services such as savings accounts, insurance, pensions and business and housing loans.

The MIF will also support a new program launched by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), which will establish a $10 million facility to finance projects to cut the cost of making money transfers to remote rural areas around the world.

Remittances in 2006 Latin American and Caribbean countries last year received some $62.3 billion from its migrants, mostly in North America, Europe and Asia. The total was 14 percent higher than the amount for 2005, said Terry.

At $23 billion, Mexico was by far the top recipient of remittances, followed by Brazil ($7.4 billion) and Colombia ($4.6 billion).

Several countries received slightly more or less than $3 billion: Guatemala, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador and Peru.

For 2007, Terry said, the MIF expects remittances to Latin America and the Caribbean to rise to around $72 billion.

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Britain seeks better debt relief deal for Latin America's poorest

from The Guardian

Larry Elliott

Britain and other European countries will today mount a final attempt to block a $4.4bn (£2.25bn) debt relief deal for five of the poorest countries in Latin America that that will be financed by raiding a fund designed to promote long-term development in the region.

The UK will argue that the plan being pushed through the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) by the US and Brazil is a flagrant breach of the principle agreed at the Gleneagles summit in 2005 that debt forgiveness should not come at the expense of other poverty alleviation programmes. Gareth Thomas, the international development minister, said: "We have been very concerned about this deal. We hope even at this late stage that discussions can take place to agree a better financing package for debt relief to these countries."

Along with other European countries, Britain intends to abstain in a vote on the package proposed for Bolivia, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras and Nicaragua, and is warning the IADB the proposal may affect future UK funding of the bank's operations in Latin America.

Last week, the IADB's president, Luis Alberto Moreno, hailed the deal as "a historic opportunity" for the five countries. "The agreement backed by our membership will help these countries free up resources to invest in quality education, health and other social services their citizens need to overcome poverty."

Britain will argue at today's meeting that the approach being taken by the IADB is inconsistent with the stance adopted by the World Bank and the African Development Bank, which have guaranteed that debt relief should be "ring-fenced". The IADB was not formally covered by the agreement made at Gleneagles in 2005, but the UK will say today that Latin American countries should enjoy the same terms as poor countries in Africa.

"We are worried that the IADB won't have as strong a focus on helping the poor in the region as it currently does", said one UK source. "We are currently undergoing a review of our relationship with the IADB. The two things [the debt deal and the review] are not unconnected."

The UK has only 1% of the votes at the IADB and accepts that the US and Brazil - which between them have a 40% stake - are almost certain to force through the deal. Brazil, the largest economy in Latin America, is seeking to ensure that the debt deal - worth $3.4bn now and $1bn off future interest payments - does not divert funds from the bigger developing nations.

"They are robbing long-term development to pay for debt relief", one UK source said. "The UK intends to abstain because it would be daft to vote against debt relief, but it should not come at the expense of long-term development."

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To deal with poverty, Latin American nations turn to experts: women

from The Monterey Herald

By Colin McMahon

Chicago Tribune

VINA DEL MAR, Chile - For Lucrecia Leiva, Rita de Cassia and Juanita Guzman, getting government aid is not just a matter of pocketing cash. It also brings responsibilities - and hope.

Unlike previous aid programs, this fresh approach to combating poverty in Latin America delivers cash instead of subsidized goods. Rather than demanding blind loyalty to any political party, it demands better parenting: Recipients must keep children in school, get them vaccinated and take them to the doctor regularly.

The goal is to foster family stability. The method is to require accountability and encourage initiative by putting money directly into the hands of women who are true experts on poverty. So far, results are encouraging.

"It's like everything has changed," said Leiva, a single mother of five who, thanks in part to cash she receives from the Chilean government, now runs a snack shop in Vina del Mar and has a son and a daughter in college. "Everything has turned around thanks to this push they gave me."

With President Bush's recent tour of Latin America, poverty is on the minds of more than just poor families like Leiva's. Departing for the region last week, Bush promised new aid programs and acknowledged that U.S.-backed market policies have failed to significantly reduce poverty by themselves, even during times of economic plenty.

"The fact is that tens of millions of our brothers and sisters to the south have seen little improvement in their daily lives, and this has led some to question the value of democracy," Bush said before leaving on his trip. Too many Latin Americans, the president added, "remain stuck in poverty and shut off from the promises of the new century."

Yet, for millions of Latin Americans, an anti-poverty approach developing over the last decade has brought promise where little existed before.

Leiva in Chile, Cassia in Brazil and Guzman in Mexico are benefiting from direct cash transfer programs that are changing the way governments attack one of Latin America's most entrenched social ills. The approach has won praise from the World Bank and support from both ends of the political spectrum.

The premise is simple: The women get money. But unlike traditional welfare plans in other countries that critics say create a culture of dependence, these programs have strict eligibility requirements designed to help the recipients and move them off the rolls once they no longer qualify.

And the sums handed out, experts say, are enough to help poor families but not enough to create a disincentive to work. In Brazil, for example, the average monthly payment is less than $60.

Officials credit the programs with helping ease poverty.

Chile has slashed poverty rates from 40 percent in 1990 to less than 18 percent today. Brazil cut poverty by 19 percent from 2003 to 2006, according to government figures. And in Mexico, overall poverty registered 35 percent in 2005, but extreme poverty has fallen from 24 percent in 2000 to less than 18 percent today.

But poverty is a complex phenomenon. Some of the recent progress can be attributed to general growth in Latin American economies. In other cases, the money sent home by relatives in the United States and Europe also has helped.

What can be said for sure is that the programs - Solidarity in Chile, Family Fund in Brazil and Opportunities in Mexico - have significantly expanded in recent years. Such programs now reach more than 16 million families across Latin America, in mountain villages, farming towns and urban slums. A decade ago, such aid recipients numbered in the thousands.

In addition, Brazil and Mexico report a dramatic increase in school enrollment and childhood vaccinations. Both countries say they have raised primary school attendance to 96 percent of eligible children, and figures are up since 2000 for middle school and high school as well.

Supporters predict deeper benefits in the long term: Today's children are getting more nourishment, health care and education than the last generation did. They are growing up better prepared to take advantage of economic growth, which in the past has often left the poor behind.

The programs are designed to avoid the old traps of Latin American aid programs by limiting corruption and cutting out the local political bosses who exploit government aid. And they empower women by placing control in the hands of mothers.

No one claims that the programs are a sudden fix for a problem that has frustrated Latin America for decades. The mismanagement, corruption, inadequate health care and sub-par education systems that feed poverty in the region will require more profound remedies.

But other countries have noticed the progress. South Africa, Nigeria and Mozambique are among several African nations using lessons from Brazil in building their own anti-poverty programs. Bangladesh, the Philippines and other Asian nations have started or are planning conditional aid transfers as well.

World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz, a neoconservative who served as deputy defense secretary in the Bush administration, called the Family Fund "a real success" during a visit to Brazil in late 2005.

Under the programs, the money gets put to work in the very communities of the poor. Small businesses are sprouting, sometimes started by recipients, because entrepreneurs are confident that even their poorest neighbors will have a steady supply of funds.

The cliche holds that it is better to teach a man to fish than to just give him a fish to eat. But governments are finding that giving a woman fish to feed her family raises the whole family's odds of success.

"How could I have done this alone?" Leiva asked, gazing around at a recent addition to her still humble home in Vina del Mar.

Vina del Mar is known as the "Garden City" on Chile's Pacific Coast. But Leiva's neighborhood is far in every meaningful way from the tourist capital's beaches and hotels, clubs and casinos. Her hilly street is a jumble of low-slung homes, many of them works in progress.

"I was desperate, crying all the time, living in depression, low self-esteem," Leiva said in a breathless rush. "Now I'm happy to be working. I'm making money. I'm in charge.

"I get up in the morning and it's: `Who wants bread with cheese? Who wants bread with something else?' Before we had no bread, not with cheese, not with anything."

Leiva, 49, named the shop where she sells staples, snacks and refreshments after her granddaughter, Lily.

Five years ago, there was no store, just a cart to haul goods to sell goods in the market.

"We were all living on top of one another," Leiva said. The family shared a room and one bed, with neither a proper kitchen nor a bathroom. One night a pot of boiling water tipped into the bed and burned one of her sons.

Now, behind the store, the family has beds for the kids, a kitchen, a bathroom and a living room.

Leiva gets more help on more fronts than Cassia in Brazil or Guzman in Mexico. Not just cash, but also intensive intervention by social workers. She gets advice on her business and personal finances and counsel on family matters. She has access to government micro-credit.

Chile's economy has had the most robust and consistent growth of any Latin American nation over the last two decades. That growth drove some of Chile's success in combating poverty.

But even conservative analysts now acknowledge that while consistent economic growth is crucial in raising standards of living, other measures are needed to lift up the poorest in Latin America.

In his speech last week to the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in Washington, Bush announced a new Latin America aid initiative, albeit modest in dollar terms. It includes $75 million for education and $385 million to promote home ownership for low-income families, plus help in constructing a health-care training facility for Central America.

One goal of the aid initiative, and of Bush's trip, is to counter the influence of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and other leftist leaders who have come to power by promising to champion the neglected poor.

In Brazil, economist Marcelo Neri of the Getulio Vargas Foundation in Rio de Janeiro said the country's Family Fund, or Bolsa Familia, is more effective at easing poverty than raising the minimum wage.

Neri said Brazil should expand Family Fund to provide cash incentives for families to get their children into early education and keep their teenagers in school longer. The Chilean and Mexican programs already do those things.

"Bolsa Familia is much better than the old programs," said Neri, noting that it focuses on the young.

"This is a good strategy, so why not stick with it for a longer part of a person's life?" Neri asked.

Critics of Family Fund include political opponents of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who accuse him of expanding the program to curry favor with voters. They say eligibility standards need to be strengthened and safeguards against fraud and waste better enforced.

Yet most of the debate is over how Family Fund should be run, not whether it should exist.

Cassia, 43, was enrolled in Bolsa Familia last year after neighbors in the Atlantic Coast city of Lauro de Freitas urged authorities to check on the children. A visit to the family's home showed why.

Cradled in Cassia's arm, 11-month-old Ester looked listless, almost stupefied. Her dark eyes were blank, her skin sallow, her belly bloated, just like that of her 2-year-old brother, Bruno.

Five other boys goofed around in the yard, playing tag, scuffling over an old telephone, singing the theme song from a nighttime soap opera. A small television was the only glimpse of modern convenience, and it was on the blink.

Cassia's home is two rooms on the ground floor of a squat cement building. The building is actually a giant water storage tank, and the rooms that Cassia's family call home were once the living quarters and supply shed for the security guard. They rest under thousands of gallons of water.

Cassia and her husband, factory worker Inacio Silva Vidal, have 10 children. Nine of the kids sleep with them in the main room. That's 11 people on one full mattress on a cement floor in a room that measures about 9 feet by 14 feet.

Cassia said she was glad to have the money from Family Fund, that it helped her buy meat and fish for the family meals and clothe the kids.

But in an indication of how little poor Brazilians expect of the state, she expressed puzzlement over why the government got involved. After all, she told officials, none of her children had died.

Cassia said doctors were concerned about baby Ester. They thought she might have parasites. They prescribed medicines and nutritional supplements. She had fattened up some, Cassia said, raising distressing questions about how poor Ester must have looked before.

As for the brood of boys, Cassia said, "It's important they stay in school." But the boys could produce only one school textbook in the whole house.

"Sometimes you have to fight to hold out hope," Cassia said.

Despite Cassia's dire situation, poverty can be even more extreme in the Brazilian countryside. The poverty rate, about 36 percent in 2005, according to U.N. figures, is higher in rural areas than cities by as much as 20 percentage points.

"I remember visiting a school and watching children faint during assembly because they were so hungry," said Lourdinha Lobo Ramos, the secretary of labor and social development for the city of Lauro de Freitas. "How can you expect children to learn if they cannot stand up from hunger?"

Family Fund, like Solidarity in Chile and Opportunities in Mexico, is based on need.

Recipients are given bank accounts and, depending on their location, cards for automated teller machines. How they manage their money is their own affair.

"Bolsa Familia provides dignity," said Moema Gramacho, the mayor of Lauro de Freitas. "States like Bahia, particularly in the run-up to elections, have had a clientelism, a dependence on the local politicians.

"You would receive some awful food that you could not choose. It was humiliating.

"Now we don't live owing favors," Gramacho said. "The woman of the home has her own (program) card. She is the actor in the market. She is going to choose which beans she wants to buy. She is going to decide whether to have meat or more milk."

The programs have also changed the role of women, not just in their families but in their communities as well.

On a hot and heavy morning in the fishing village of El Papayo on Mexico's Pacific Coast, the people of a dozen surrounding communities came to collect their Opportunities payments. Aside from the bureaucrats and security officers, there were perhaps three men in a crowd of more than 200 people.

Opportunities officials reminded the women that they could be dropped from the rolls if they failed to keep their children in school and take them to the doctor. They warned the women about having proper documents and reporting any hint of fraud or corruption.

Then Alejandro Samano Zapata, a regional supervisor, addressed the crowd. "How are we going to finish off poverty?" Samano asked.

"Work," one woman responded.

"Study," shouted another.

"I'm glad to hear you answer this way," Samano said, "because we would not do away with poverty even if the money you are given were doubled or tripled. We are not going to do it with money alone but with the efforts that each of you makes, saving, studying, overcoming, educating your children."

The vast majority of recipients are women, though single men running a household can also get payments. Officials are not shy about saying why they steer the money to the women: Too much aid from previous programs, usually delivered to the males in the family, ended up in cantinas and other places where it did no good.

"Women are exponentially better at getting the most out of the money," said Cecilia Perez Diaz, executive director of the Solidarity and Social Investment Fund in Chile. "But they are also more efficient in the micro-economy. They are less daring with their investments and more responsible in servicing their debts and fulfilling their commitments."

The Chileans report that the payments, and the responsibility that goes with the payments, have helped women who were victims of discrimination or domestic abuse stand up for themselves. Even in traditionally male-dominated areas of Mexico and Brazil, women have won new respect for making the family's life better.

"Guerrero is a pretty rough state, but even here the men respect the money of the women," Samano said. "Before a woman's place was in the home. But now she is in touch with the doctors, the teachers. She is making decisions in town."

Juanita Guzman, 30, looks at the four children in her home, three she bore with her husband and an older girl from her husband's first marriage, and sees progress.

Hilda, the oldest, has just finished junior high, and she will keep getting a monthly government stipend for staying in high school. Guzman's youngest daughter, 3-year-old Citlali, has put on weight, pleasing the doctor whom Guzman sees as part of the program.

But the family still sleeps crammed in the main room of their home, a rickety mix of adobe and brick and wood and thatch. The roof keeps the rain out, but the sewage still runs out through the yard and into the dirt streets of El Papayo. And the wages from her husband's janitor's job remain measly.

If not for the $35 a month the family receives from Opportunities for food, plus nearly $100 in the education stipend and other aid payments, things would be harder, Guzman said.

"The big difference is in food and education," said Guzman, who came from a fishing family that suffered when the fishing was bad. "I finished junior high school. But there was no money to continue."

That relatively so little money - Guzman receives about $1,600 a year - can make such a big difference is a major selling point for the programs.

A study in Brazil showed that government corruption cost the country more every year than Bolsa Familia.

And in Chile, where payments are higher and the Solidarity program is more comprehensive, the monthly aid is still not enough to replace a family's monthly wages.

"Never do the transfers reach a level that generates a strong dependence or creates a disincentive to work," said Patricia Jara of the Solidarity program in Santiago.

Lucrecia Leiva said it took her six months to come out of a depression that she links to her worsening poverty. The recovery started when she began receiving help through a part of the wider Solidarity program called the Bridge fund. For the first time in a long time, Leiva saw hope.

Social workers visited her home, helping her get identity documents she lacked, making sure she had access to the social services that all Chileans are entitled to by law.

Then, as she got more confident, Leiva was able to open her store with the aid and move her family.

Now she wishes sometimes that her college-age kids were around more to lend a hand and tend the cash register. But then she remembers where she was, and where they are.

"I don't lack for food anymore," Leiva said. "And if my kids cannot help me because they are in the university, I say, it doesn't matter. I am happy. And they say that one day they will pay for me."

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From poor to empowered

from The Chicago Tribune

To deal with poverty, Latin American nations turn to experts: Women who run families

By Colin McMahon
Tribune foreign correspondent

VINA DEL MAR, Chile -- For Lucrecia Leiva, Rita de Cassia and Juanita Guzman, getting government aid is not just a matter of pocketing cash. It also brings responsibilities--and hope.

Unlike previous aid programs, this fresh approach to combating poverty in Latin America delivers cash instead of subsidized goods. Rather than demanding blind loyalty to any political party, it demands better parenting: Recipients must keep children in school, get them vaccinated and take them to the doctor regularly.

The goal is to foster family stability. The method is to require accountability and encourage initiative by putting money directly into the hands of women who are true experts on poverty. So far, results are encouraging.

"It's like everything has changed," said Leiva, a single mother of five who, thanks in part to cash she receives from the Chilean government, now runs a snack shop in Vina del Mar and has a son and a daughter in college. "Everything has turned around thanks to this push they gave me."

With President Bush touring Latin America, poverty is on the minds of more than just poor families like Leiva's. Bush departed for the region Thursday promising new aid programs and acknowledging that U.S.-backed market policies have failed to significantly reduce poverty by themselves, even during times of economic plenty.

"The fact is that tens of millions of our brothers and sisters to the south have seen little improvement in their daily lives, and this has led some to question the value of democracy," Bush said before leaving on his trip. Too many Latin Americans, the president added, "remain stuck in poverty and shut off from the promises of the new century."

Yet, for millions of Latin Americans, an anti-poverty approach developing over the last decade has brought promise where little existed before.

Leiva in Chile, Cassia in Brazil and Guzman in Mexico are benefiting from direct cash transfer programs that are changing the way governments attack one of Latin America's most entrenched social ills. The approach has won praise from the World Bank and support from both ends of the political spectrum.

The premise is simple: The women get money. But unlike traditional welfare plans in other countries that critics say create a culture of dependence, these programs have strict eligibility requirements designed to help the recipients and move them off the rolls once they no longer qualify.

And the sums handed out, experts say, are enough to help poor families but not enough to create a disincentive to work. In Brazil, for example, the average monthly payment is less than $60.

Officials credit the programs with helping ease poverty.

Chile has slashed poverty rates from 40 percent in 1990 to less than 18 percent today. Brazil cut poverty by 19 percent from 2003 to 2006, according to government figures. And in Mexico, overall poverty registered 35 percent in 2005, but extreme poverty has fallen from 24 percent in 2000 to less than 18 percent today.

But poverty is a complex phenomenon. Some of the recent progress can be attributed to general growth in Latin American economies. In other cases, the money sent home by relatives in the United States and Europe also has helped.

What can be said for sure is that the programs--Solidarity in Chile, Family Fund in Brazil and Opportunities in Mexico--have significantly expanded in recent years. Such programs now reach more than 16 million families across Latin America, in mountain villages, farming towns and urban slums. A decade ago, such aid recipients numbered in the thousands.

In addition, Brazil and Mexico report a dramatic increase in school enrollment and childhood vaccinations. Both countries say they have raised primary school attendance to 96 percent of eligible children, and figures are up since 2000 for middle school and high school as well.

Supporters predict deeper benefits in the long term: Today's children are getting more nourishment, health care and education than the last generation did. They are growing up better prepared to take advantage of economic growth, which in the past has often left the poor behind.

The programs are designed to avoid the old traps of Latin American aid programs by limiting corruption and cutting out the local political bosses who exploit government aid. And they empower women by placing control in the hands of mothers.

No one claims that the programs are a sudden fix for a problem that has frustrated Latin America for decades. The mismanagement, corruption, inadequate health care and sub-par education systems that feed poverty in the region will require more profound remedies.

But other countries have noticed the progress. South Africa, Nigeria and Mozambique are among several African nations using lessons from Brazil in building their own anti-poverty programs. Bangladesh, the Philippines and other Asian nations have started or are planning conditional aid transfers as well.

World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz, a neoconservative who served as deputy defense secretary in the Bush administration, called the Family Fund "a real success" during a visit to Brazil in late 2005.

Under the programs, the money gets put to work in the very communities of the poor. Small businesses are sprouting, sometimes started by recipients, because entrepreneurs are confident that even their poorest neighbors will have a steady supply of funds.

`I was desperate'

The cliche holds that it is better to teach a man to fish than to just give him a fish to eat. But governments are finding that giving a woman fish to feed her family raises the whole family's odds of success.

"How could I have done this alone?" Leiva asked, gazing around at a recent addition to her still humble home in Vina del Mar.

Vina del Mar is known as the "Garden City" on Chile's Pacific Coast. But Leiva's neighborhood is far in every meaningful way from the tourist capital's beaches and hotels, clubs and casinos. Her hilly street is a jumble of low-slung homes, many of them works in progress.

"I was desperate, crying all the time, living in depression, low self-esteem," Leiva said in a breathless rush. "Now I'm happy to be working. I'm making money. I'm in charge.

"I get up in the morning and it's: `Who wants bread with cheese? Who wants bread with something else?' Before we had no bread, not with cheese, not with anything."

Leiva, 49, named the shop where she sells staples, snacks and refreshments after her granddaughter, Lily.

Five years ago, there was no store, just a cart to haul goods to sell goods in the market.

"We were all living on top of one another," Leiva said. The family shared a room and one bed, with neither a proper kitchen nor a bathroom. One night a pot of boiling water tipped into the bed and burned one of her sons.

Now, behind the store, the family has beds for the kids, a kitchen, a bathroom and a living room.

Leiva gets more help on more fronts than Cassia in Brazil or Guzman in Mexico. Not just cash, but also intensive intervention by social workers. She gets advice on her business and personal finances and counsel on family matters. She has access to government micro-credit.

Chile's economy has had the most robust and consistent growth of any Latin American nation over the last two decades. That growth drove some of Chile's success in combating poverty.

But even conservative analysts now acknowledge that while consistent economic growth is crucial in raising standards