America joins in a development plan with a focus on gender and migration

Its central objective is to evaluate the implementation of the commitments adopted in the political declaration through concrete actions that allow to organize in a united and intertwined way the actions of the Member States.

The Director of the Department of Social Inclusion of the OAS, Betilde Muñoz-Pogossian, told Efe that during two days, in which 23 representatives of the Ministries of Development of the region met in Guatemala, a political declaration was agreed on social development detailing the possible consensuses for the eradication of poverty.

There are three striking points in this statement. The gender approach, because "poverty usually has the face of a woman" and there is a "phenomenon of feminization of poverty"; the use of technologies as a mechanism to make the payment of social assistance transparent, and a hemispheric phenomenon: the displacement of migrants and refugees.

"This discussion reflected something that is becoming a priority," said Muñoz-Pogossian.

He added that in addition to the protection measures for these groups, the departure of Venezuelans, the Central American migrants who leave en route to the north, or the flight of Nicaraguans to Costa Rica since last April, when a social crisis was unleashed, was discussed. politics in Nicaragua.

But, he said, it is important to "highlight" that for the first time an action plan was approved that "lands what emerges from the political dialogues with a route of concrete actions that countries will implement, and that will serve as a tool for measuring whether these consensuses are having effects "to reduce poverty, which affects more than 30% of Latin Americans.

In this sense, the secretary of Access to Rights and Equity of the OAS, Gastão Alves de Toledo, said that the organization assumes this task "with humility knowing that the challenges are immense but with the certainty that the OAS" can make "contributions significant to advance in the social development of the region "

Alves de Toledo, who recalled that diversity contributes to enrich the dialogue and have a wide range of experiences to guide actions to combat inequality and poverty, said that massive displacement phenomena in the region require specific actions.

The Inter-American Agenda for Social Development will be based on the principles of collaboration and intersectorality, and will promote the articulation and integration of the efforts made by other international and regional organizations, as well as the academic, private sector, civil society and other social actors, including to indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples and communities.

For the implementation of the Guatemala action plan, three working groups will be created with representatives of the ministries and agencies responsible for social development, in order to advise the Inter-American Committee on Social Development in compliance with the objectives of the Declaration of Guatemala. .

Among its tasks is the measurement of multidimensional poverty, the design of public policies focused on guaranteeing well-being, the concretion of social protection systems to end inequality in all its forms with a comprehensive approach, and strengthen financing, cooperation and hemispheric assistance through the Inter-American Social Protection Network.

The economic resources will be provided by the Member States, although an appeal was also made to international and regional organizations to make voluntary contributions to support the activities and projects included in this road map.

Extreme poverty in Latin America reached the maximum level in the last ten years in 2017. 10.2% of the population, that is, 62 million people, live in this situation.

While the proportion of the poor remained stable, affecting a total of 184 million, 30.2% of the 632 million inhabitants living in Latin America, 645.5 million with the inclusion of the Caribbean.

The report "Social Panorama of Latin America 2018" of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) also indicates that women are less likely to participate in the labor market due to the high burden of unpaid domestic work.

What does this mean in data? That the labor activity rate of women is 24.2% lower than that of men and that the percentage of young women in the region who do not study and do not work is almost three times higher than in men, since it is 31.2% and 11.5%, respectively.