COVID-19 pandemic causes unprecedented poverty rise in LatAm in 2020: UN agency

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SANTIAGO - Latin America reached unprecedented levels of poverty and extreme poverty in 2020 not seen in recent years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) said on Thursday.

ECLAC's Executive Secretary Alicia Barcena virtually presented the new edition of the annual report titled the Social Panorama of Latin America 2020.

"The pandemic has highlighted and exacerbated major structural gaps in the region and, currently, the region is living through a moment of great uncertainty where neither the path nor the speed out of the crisis has been defined," she said.

According to the UN agency, employment and labor participation rates in the region declined last year, especially among women, due to the health emergency and restrictions imposed to prevent the spread of the virus.

Given this scenario, the report stressed the urgency of "investing in this sector in order to confront the crisis, guarantee the right to give and receive care, as well as to reactivate the economy from a perspective of equality and sustainable development."

ECLAC estimated in its report that at the end of 2020, there were 209 million poor people in the region, 22 million more than a year earlier, while pointing out that gaps persist between population groups, with poverty greater in rural areas among children and young people, as well as among indigenous people, Afro-descendants and people with lower educational levels.

In this regard, the report called for guaranteeing universal social protection as a central pillar of the "welfare state," while urging the short-term implementation or continuation of emergency monetary allowances, such as emergency basic income, anti-hunger vouchers and women's funds.

The report added that in the medium and long term, progress should be made toward a universal basic income, with priority given to families with children and adolescents, as well as a commitment to universal, comprehensive and sustainable social protection systems and increased coverage.