Latin America Key facts

Reducing poverty and inequality in Latin America | Gender and social exclusion | Governance | Trade and growth | HIV/AIDS | Climate change | Making progress against the Millennium Development Goals

Reducing poverty and inequality in Latin America

• DFID’s assistance in this region is small in financial terms but strategic, aimed at achieving greater impact on poverty reduction
• We focus on the off-track Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and entrenched poverty and inequality
• We work with international Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) including CAFOD, Oxfam, Save the Children and WWF, to reduce poverty and inequality through empowering civil society to address social, economic and political exclusion; total funding will increase from £7 million to £13 million per year by 2010/11 through the Partnership Programme Arrangement (PPA)
• We also work with and through other organisations, such as the World Bank and the European Commission, promoting more effective approaches by the whole international community; this support is set to increase from £65 million to £73 million per year.

Gender and social exclusion

• Social exclusion underpins the persistent inequality and poverty in Latin America; discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, geography and gender is at the heart of exclusion suffered by poor people in the region
• For example, though many countries have taken action to tackle widespread gender inequality, there is still considerable progress to be made
• A number of legislative changes are still required, discrimination against women is still widespread, and gender inequities persist in all areas of life: economic, political, social, and cultural
• These inequalities are compounded by poverty and ethnicity, with indigenous and Afro-descendant women in particular facing discrimination and social exclusion
• In Brazil, the government’s flagship poverty reduction programme Bolsa Familia (reducing poverty through cash transfers to vulnerable households), has helped make Brazil the world leader in social protection
• Across the region, Latin America PPA partners are working to give poor and marginalised people a greater voice in decisions that affect their lives, enabling them to defend their rights and demand their entitlements.

Governance

• Democratic processes and mechanisms can fail to be responsive to the interests and demands of different constituencies, particularly the poor and excluded
• Substantial pockets of the region’s population, and particularly indigenous groups, have limited access to health care, poor educational outcomes, poor working conditions, and lack political representation
• Statistics suggest that only 20% of Latin Americans trust political parties, 29% trust Congresses (2007 Latino-barometro poll)
• In countries such as Bolivia and Ecuador inequality and unfulfilled needs amongst the poorest groups of society have led to street protests and popular uprisings that eventually resulted in changes of government
• Through its programmes with the PPA NGOs and international organisations, DFID seeks to promote governance systems that pay attention to the voice and interests of the poor and marginalised
• PPA partners are working across the region with civil society and grassroots organisations to improve the relationship between state and citizens and to help governments to become more inclusive and accountable to the poor.

Trade and growth

• The poorest are most often those with the lowest levels of education and fewest physical assets, and similarly lack access to key markets and services
• DFID seeks to make markets more accessible to poor people in the region, supporting reforms and policies that will enable them to better participate in a market economy and reap the benefits of it
• Through its programmes with the PPA NGOs and international organisations, DFID seeks to promote economic opportunities for poor people through sustainable livelihood strategies and access to markets
• Focal areas include agricultural production, micro-enterprise development, and access to finance and other essential services.

HIV and AIDS

• The HIV and AIDS epidemic in Latin America is concentrated in socially marginalised groups, including sex workers, injecting drug users and transgender people
• 1.7 million people were living with HIV in 2007 and 63,000 people died of AIDS in the same year (International HIV/AIDS Alliance 2008)
• The region is still far from providing full access to HIV antiretroviral therapy; some countries still have coverage of less than 30%
• Brazil’s achievements in expanding access remain unique, leading to a 50% decrease in AIDS mortality rates between 1996 and 2002
• Working through our NGO partners, DFID seeks to reduce prevalence rates and the stigma and discrimination experienced by those living with HIV and AIDS through models of prevention, care and advocacy.

Climate change

• The impacts of climate change are already being felt in Latin America – the frequency of tropical storms is increasing, glaciers are melting in the Andes, and temperatures are rising in the Amazon (WWF 2008)
• Climate change is impacting the poorest people first and hardest, especially those who rely on the land for their livelihoods
• DFID seeks to increase the capacity of poor people, communities and governments in Latin America to reduce disaster risk and vulnerability to climate change and adapt to the impacts of climate change
• Latin America PPA partners are working to reduce emissions from deforestation and degradation; promote strategies for low-carbon development and strengthen national climate policy and adaptation plans
• We have also budgeted £5 million per year for new research on climate change and ecosystems in Latin America.

Making progress against the Millennium Development Goals

The Latin American region has made important progress towards achieving the MDGs by 2015. However, according to the UN, the region is not likely to achieve the goals for extreme poverty reduction (MDG 1) and for the reduction of maternal mortality (MDG 5) - economic growth is needed to accelerate progress on all poverty-related goals.

DFID’s work in the region has a particular focus on contributing to the off-track MDGs by ensuring that:

• growth is sustainable, and takes account of climate change and environmental factors
• growth is inclusive and allows poor people, especially women and vulnerable groups, to benefit fairly from it
• governance systems are strengthened and tackle corruption
• development helps prevent conflict
• multilateral organisations are effective development partners

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