Poverty In Latin America: UN Says Reduction Of Poverty Slowing

Poverty plagues the world as World Bank estimates in a new report has found that 400 million children are living in extreme poverty and according to UNICEF, 1 billion children live in poverty worldwide and 22,000 children die each day from poverty. Latin America also faces the poverty epidemic and for a while, there was some good news: Latin America saw a fall in poverty rates from 1990 to 2010. The poverty rate fell from 48.4 percent to 31.4 percent and extreme poverty fell from 22.6 percent to 12.3 percent. The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) attributes the fall to an increase in wages.

That said, the UN has some news about the poverty rate in Latin America: The lowering poverty rate is decreasing at a slower pace. In fact, the poverty reduction rate is the lowest that it has been in three decades. As such, the UN's regional economic body announced their findings on Thursday and has called on governments to change their policy to help reduce poverty at a faster rate. UN economists based in Santiago have reported that 164 million people, which is 28 percent of the region's population, are still considered poor and out of those, 68 million are in extreme poverty. These values remain unchanged when compared to last year's findings.

"Since 2002 poverty in Latin America has dropped 15.7 percentage points and indigence 8 percentage points but recent numbers show a slowdown," Alicia Barcena, head of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), told reporters according to the Associated Press. "The only acceptable number living in poverty is zero. That's why we're calling on countries to make structural changes in their economies to achieve sustained growth with greater equality."

In Latin America, the disparity between the rich and the poor is unequal. The Associated Press reports that 20 percent of the lowest income households in Latin America get 5 percent of the country's total income, while 20 percent of the wealthiest households get 47 percent of the total income. "Latin American countries that experienced some of the biggest reductions in poverty levels since 2011 were led by Venezuela with the rate dropping by 5.6 percentage points to 23.9 percent. Others included Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela," shares the Associated Press. "While levels remained unchanged in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Uruguay and the Dominican Republic, poverty rose slightly in Mexico to 37 percent from 36 percent a year before."

"A multidimensional measurement of poverty limited to unsatisfied basic needs shows that shortages like the lack of access to drinking water or to appropriate sanitation systems still affect a significant number of people in the region," said the ECLAC's Social Panorama 2013 report. "That makes one wonder if the public policies intended to overcome poverty put enough emphasis on the achievement of minimum standards."