The cascade of crises that Latin America and the Caribbean has faced since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 generated strong deteriorations in poverty, inequality and employment. Even though since 2022 the region has shown a slight favorable trend of recovery of various dimensions of inclusive social development (ECLAC, 2023[1]), remains mired in a double structural trap of low growth and high levels of poverty and inequality. Inequality is a historical and structural characteristic of this region, which has been maintained and reproduced even in periods of economic growth and prosperity (ECLAC, 2016[2]).
Inequality has been at the center of the thinking and reflections of ECLAC in its 75 years of life, contributing from an analysis at an interregional level, with approaches on center-periphery dynamics in relation to sectoral asymmetries of economic development (ECLAC, 1951[3]), to the distribution of income, wealth and the exercise of rights. The structural heterogeneity that characterizes the functioning of the productive systems of the countries of the region, in which low-productivity sectors generate most of the employment, is one of the determinants of inequality in the region. The labor market is the fundamental link that links this productive structure with income inequality. It has been suggested that this structural inequality is an important barrier to the development of the countries in the region, as well as to the eradication of poverty, the expansion of citizenship and the exercise of rights (ECLAC, 2010[4]2012[5] and 2014[6]). It is also inefficient because it has a negative impact on productivity, taxation and environmental sustainability (ECLAC, 2018[7]).
With the approach of the “Social Inequality Matrix” (ECLAC, 2016) as a guiding analytical framework, it is argued that, along with socioeconomic status, inequalities in economic well-being and rights are determined by structuring axes such as gender, those related to the different stages of people's life cycle (including intergenerational inequality), ethnic-racial origin, disability, immigration status and territory (such as urban segmentation and the disadvantages of rural sectors), among others. These axes intersect and combine with each other, generating a multiplicity of factors and expressions of inequality (of well-being and exercise of rights) that accumulate over time.
In contexts of high labor informality and inequality, with large gaps in the social protection systems that characterize the region, the lower strata frequently must face uncertainty and individual and collective shocks at the expense of their present and future well-being. This vulnerability to poverty characterizes the middle strata that have managed to escape poverty but, as the COVID-19 Pandemic showed, any shock or socioeconomic crisis can make them fall into it, especially when they are not sufficiently and timely covered by social protection systems.
Today there is broad recognition of the relevance of addressing inequality and promoting social inclusion. This has a clear basis in the rights-based approach and the recognition of the negative consequences it has on the development of capabilities and individual well-being. But it is also a necessary objective for economic growth and sustainable development, a centrality that is clearly highlighted in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and that is included in the axes and lines of action of public policy agreed upon by the countries of the region in the Regional Agenda for Inclusive Social Development (ECLAC, 2020[8]). Making progress in reducing inequality gaps is key to achieving inclusive social development and this is an inherent dimension of sustainable development in the region.
The objective of this seminar is to promote reflection and dialogue to advance the recognition, analysis of the characteristics and dimensioning of social inequality in the region on the way to the Second World Summit for Social Development in 2025. With this, we seek to strengthen the design of public policies that allow progress in inclusive social development and thus progress in meeting the objectives agreed by the countries in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
