ECLAC outlines priorities for Latin America and Caribbean at World Economic Forum

Jan 28, 2018 News

DAVOS, Switzerland (CMC) – The Executive Secretary of the United Nations Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Alicia

Alicia Bárcena, Executive Secretary of ECLAC (third from left), took part in the panel Bridges vs Borders: The Migration Dilemma. (Photo: ECLAC)

Bárcena, says growth with equality, integration and migration are priority issues for Latin America and the Caribbean
Addressing the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) that ended here Friday, she said the region wanted to put an end to the culture of privilege and advance toward economic, social and environmental equality to guarantee its inhabitants’ right to development.
The United Nations official participated in several sessions of the Forum addressing recent trends and the determining factors behind the evolution of inequality at the global and regional levels; the challenges facing the Pacific Alliance and integration in Latin America and the Caribbean; the strengthening of institutional and regulatory architecture to advance toward gender equality, and the dilemma of migration in the region, among others.
“Latin America is characterized by high levels of inequality brought to bear not only in the income gap between rich and poor, but also in the gap in achievements and opportunities in jobs, education, health, and across various population groups,” said Bárcena during remarks she made on the panel The Big Picture on Inequality.
Bárcena said that in the last 15 years, Latin America has progressed in the reduction of inequality in income distribution; however, this trend has slowed significantly in recent years.
She pointed out that between 2002-2008, the simple average of Gini coefficients for the region fell by a rate of 1.5 per cent per year; between 2008-2014, the reduction was 0.7 per cent annually; while between 2014-2016, the inequality average was reduced by just 0.4% per year.
“Equality must be the engine of economic growth and sustainable development in the region. Latin America and the Caribbean urgently require the dismantling of the culture of privilege that still prevails in the region and is manifested, for instance, in existing high levels of tax evasion and corruption,” she added.
Bárcena also moderated a panel on the challenges facing the Pacific Alliance and integration in Latin America and the Caribbean in the current global context.
In that context, she underlined that spaces must be sought to strengthen the convergence between the Alliance and the Southern Common Market (Mercosur), with the purpose of boosting and facilitating intra-regional trade.
“The Pacific Alliance is at this moment aiming to consolidate itself, expand and establish a more long-term strategic outlook,” said Bárcena, announcing that, on that path, ECLAC and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) will support the presidencies of Colombia and Mexico in the formulation of an ambitious vision of the future.
During her presentation, Bárcena highlighted the opportunity opening up for the region as ties are strengthened between Latin America and the Caribbean and China.
She said that, according to ECLAC’s estimates, bilateral trade multiplied 22 times between 2000 and 2013, and in 2017 reached US$ 266 billion.
“This means progress of 53 per cent toward the goal with seven years to reach it,” she said, highlighting the upcoming signing of the Trans-Pacific Economic Cooperation Agreement (TPP-11), which will take place in the Chilean capital in March.
On the issue of migration, Bárcena urged countries to look at migration as a contribution to democracy, diversity and sustainable development.
She said that there are currently 30 million natives of the region living outside their country of birth, amounting to four per cent of the population.
On the other hand, the population born outside the region and currently residing in the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean is equivalent to a quarter of those who have emigrated and make up just 1.1 per cent of the region’s total population.
In contrast, immigrants from within the region of Latin America and the Caribbean represent 62.8 per cent of total immigrants, a figure that continues to grow in relation to previous decades.