Social Panorama of Latin America 2005

The 2005 edition of the Social Panorama of Latin America analyses recent poverty trends and the increase in migrant remittances, together with their impact on the well-being of the region’s population. Short- and long-term trends in social spending, the distribution of such expenditures among the various socio-economic strata and their effects in terms of income deconcentration and increased well-being are also reviewed. The analysis seeks to explore the question as to whether the demographic transition taking place in the Latin American countries over the past 15 years has helped to narrow the long-standing gaps between different socio-economic groups’ and areas’ mortality and birth rates. Attention is also drawn to the magnitude of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Caribbean countries and to the reversal of its skewed gender distribution, which has had a devastating impact on households and the community at large. Finally, this edition looks at major changes in the health sector, the policies and programmes being used to cope with them, and the various financial and management issues that the countries will have to address in this connection. The chapter on poverty presents projections of poverty and indigence levels for 2003-2005, together with recent estimates for some countries in the region. This information appears to indicate that poverty is on the decline, although not fast enough to enable the region to meet the first target set in relation to the Millennium Development Goals. In addition to examining the progress made by the region towards the satisfaction of basic needs, this chapter provides new data on remittances’ impact on the population’s living standards. The data indicate that remittances are helping to raise recipient households’ living standards substantially and are enabling many of their members to escape from poverty. The impact that such remittances have on overall poverty and indigence rates and on income distribution is very limited, however.