Assessing social well-being requires adding other indicators, including other indicators of social inequality, to the income Gini index. Recognizing and measuring social inequality in its multiple dimensions is a necessary condition to overcome the trap of high inequality and low mobility and social cohesion in which Latin America and the Caribbean is mired and which hinders the region’s progress towards sustainable development, he stated. Alberto Arenas de Mesa, Director of the Social Development Division of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), at the closing of the Fourth Regional Seminar on Social Development “Social protection and inequality: Latin America and the Caribbean towards the Second World Summit on Social Development 2025”.
“In our region, trying to create quality social policies without a metric that gives shape and size to social inequality could be classified as insufficient or, in other words, it means moving forward on a journey without a compass or a map. It is essential to move towards a multidimensional measurement of social inequality in the region,” Arenas de Mesa said at the hybrid event held at ECLAC headquarters in Santiago, Chile.
The Director of the Social Development Division added that “the data, experiences and approaches shared in this Fourth Regional Seminar on Social Development have given us new light on the centrality of treating social inequality as an objective of public policy oriented toward inclusive social development.” ”.
In its three days, the meeting had the in-person and/or virtual participation of representatives of academia, civil society and the governments of the region, as well as the virtual and/or in-person attendance of the general public, from more than 19 countries. On average, there were more than 300 people connected daily.
The objective of the Fourth Regional Seminar on Social Development was to advance in the recognition, analysis of the characteristics and dimensioning of social inequality in the region, on the path to the Second World Summit on Social Development to be held in 2025.
“The reflection and exchanges of these three days have shown us the relevance and opportunity of addressing this issue to strengthen the design of public policies that embrace the objective of leaving no one behind and seeking to comply with the Sustainable Development Goals,” he indicated. Alberto Arenas de Mesa, editor, together with Claudia Robles, also an official of the Social Development Division of ECLAC, of the book Non-contributory pension systems in Latin America and the Caribbean: advancing solidarity with sustainabilityprepared within the framework of a project with German Cooperation and presented during the regional meeting.
This is the first book published by this regional United Nations organization that is dedicated exclusively to the study of non-contributory pension systems in the region.
According to ECLAC Executive Secretary José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, these systems constitute a basic instrument for achieving universal, comprehensive, sustainable and resilient social protection systems in the region. “In fact, in the 21st century, non-contributory pension systems have become the cornerstone of social protection systems in Latin America and the Caribbean,” he stressed.
During the Fourth Regional Seminar on Social Development, three keynote lectures were held, providing an inspiring framework for the debates of the various thematic panels on social protection and inequality.
In the first of them, Nicholas Barr, Professor of Public Economics at the London School of Economics and Political Science, called, among other things, to work for the development of social protection systems to reduce inequality and move towards a welfare state. , both in attention to its social and economic impacts, and, in that effort, consider strategic elements such as, for example, the strengthening of early childhood development and the protection of people in old age.
Professor Sir Michael Marmot, Director of the Institute for Health Equity at University College London, then stressed the importance of addressing the social determinants of health, not only to guarantee the right to health and reduce inequalities in this area, but also as a guiding principle for health policy.
Francois Bourguignon, Professor Emeritus of Economics at the Paris School of Economics, addressed conceptual debates, existing global challenges and proposals for measuring social inequality.
The regional meeting also featured the (virtual) intervention of Ambassador Paula Narváez, President of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), who made an invitation to work to bring the region’s message to the Second World Summit on Social Development in 2025, a commitment that ECLAC will fulfill through its Regional Conference on Social Development in Latin America and the Caribbean.
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