Reimagining Poverty Solutions

CAF- development bank of Latin America and the Caribbean and United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP) invite you to their event "Reimagining Poverty Solutions – seeking new ways to connect politics, measurement, and policy action in Latin America and the Caribbean".

This will be the inaugural edition of the organization´s Annual Conference on Poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean that this year will coincide with the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.

This initiative seeks to establish a platform for policymakers, activists, and academics dedicated to poverty reduction, enabling them to share research developments, showcase successful poverty reduction programs or projects, and engage in dialogues where diverse stakeholders in the fight against poverty can exchange perspectives and insights.

Event date:

October 17, 2024

online

Over the past two decades, Latin America and the Caribbean have made notable progress in reducing poverty. When measured against the upper-middle-income country poverty line of USD 6.85 per day (2017 PPP), the overall rate of income poverty in the region declined by 20 percentage points (The World Bank, 2023). Some of the poorest countries, such as Nicaragua, Bolivia, and Honduras, experienced substantial reductions in acute multidimensional poverty, with improvements observed in both the incidence and intensity of poverty (Alkire et al., 2020; Gasparini, Santos, and Tornarolli, 2021).

The significant decline in income poverty can be attributed to a combination of robust economic growth and strategic public policy measures, particularly the widespread adoption of conditional cash transfer programs (Levy, 2016). Concurrently, reductions in multidimensional poverty were achieved through sectoral policies that led to advancements across various dimensions, enabling some of the poorest nations in the region to halve their multidimensional poverty rates and achieve rapid reductions in acute poverty among the most disadvantaged groups (Santos, 2023).

Despite these successes, 181 million people in Latin America (29% of the regional population) continue to live in income poverty, and over 38 million individuals (in countries with available data) remain in acute multidimensional poverty (ECLAC, 2023; OPHI, 2023). Key areas of deprivation include access to clean cooking fuel, improved sanitation, adequate housing materials, electricity, safe drinking water, assets, nutrition, and years of schooling (Gasparini, Santos, and Tornarolli, 2021). Poverty levels in rural areas are, on average, more than eight times higher than in urban regions (OPHI, 2020). Moreover, a third of the population currently not classified as income-poor is vulnerable to falling back into poverty with a single economic shock, highlighting the precariousness of their situation (The World Bank, 2023). These findings suggest that achieving Sustainable Development Goal 1 (eradicating poverty) is at serious risk, as many of its indicators are progressing too slowly or even regressing (ECLAC, 2024).

Date: October 17, 2024, 11:15am – 12:45pm (EST)
Venue: New York City, Madrid, and online

The event will be broadcasted in this website

Participants

Assistant Secretary General, Deputy Administrator and Director of the Regional Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean, UNDP

Executive President, CAF -Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean-

Colombia

Global Director, Poverty and Equity Global Practice, World Bank Group

Director, Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), University of Oxford.

Director of the Sustainable Development Center, Columbia University.

Manager of Planning and Development Impact, CAF - development bank of Latin America and the Caribbean

Minister of Development and Social Assistance, Family and Fight against Hunger and former governor of Piauí

Brazil

Michelle Muschett

Assistant Secretary General, Deputy Administrator and Director of the Regional Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean, UNDP

Michelle Muschett (Panama) is UN Assistant Secretary-General, Assistant Administrator and Director of the Regional Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Michelle Muschett is a social policy and global development specialist with multisectoral experience in a wide variety of leadership positions. During her tenure as Deputy Minister and Minister of Social Development of Panama, Ms. Muschett led the process of developing the first national Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), the creation of the first Childhood MPI in the Latin America region, and the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the national level through civic participation and strategic partnerships. She also chaired the National Concertation Council for Development, a legally established dialogue space aimed at building consensus amongst different sectors of society on national development priorities. Prior this appointment, Ms. Muschett was serving as Senior Public Policy Advisor and Executive Education Director for Oxford’s Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), advising governments and policymakers from Africa, Asia, and Latin America in their efforts to address multidimensional poverty. She is also Senior Policy and Strategy Advisor for the Fourth Sector Group, providing guidance on how to mobilize collective leadership and action to scale business models that can deliver social and environmental benefits, and to leverage development finance to accelerate the transition towards more inclusive, sustainable and resilient economic systems globally. She has been a visiting professor and lecturer at academic institutions across Asia, Europe, and Latin America, focusing on human and social development, politics of the policy process, political innovation, and leadership for global citizenship. She is a Fellow of the Central America Leadership Initiative, a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network and a member the International Women’s Forum, Panama Chapter. As a practicing lawyer, Ms. Muschett focuses on issues related to commercial law and international arbitration. She has also participated in the drafting of national legislation. Ms. Muschett holds a master’s degrees in Public Administration from Cornell University, United States; Commercial Law from Externado University of Colombia; and Management of Heritage and Cultural Projects from the Institute for Art and Restauration Palazzo Spinelli, Italy. She speaks Spanish, English, and Italian.

Luis Felipe López-Calva

Global Director, Poverty and Equity Global Practice, World Bank Group

Luis Felipe López-Calva is Global Director of the World Bank Group's Poverty and Equity Global Practice in the Equitable Growth, Finance and Institutions (EFI) Vice Presidency. Mr. López-Calva has 25 years of professional experience working with international institutions and advising national governments. He rejoined the World Bank in 2022 from the United Nations Development Program, where he served as UN Assistant Secretary-General and Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean since 2018. In his previous stint at the World Bank, he held various positions, including Practice Manager of the Poverty and Equity Global Practice for Europe and Central Asia, Co-Director of the World Development Report 2017 Governance and the Law, Lead Economist and Regional Advisor on Poverty in the Poverty and Equity Global Practice for Europe and Central Asia, and Lead Economist in the Poverty, Equity and Gender Unit in PREM's Latin America and the Caribbean Directorate. López-Calva is a member of the Board of Directors of the Global Development Network (GDN) and a member of the Human Development and Capabilities Association. His research interests focus on labor markets, poverty and inequality, institutions and the microeconomics of development. He has published extensively on these topics in academic journals, books and public policy reports. He holds a master's degree in economics from Boston University, as well as a master's degree and a PhD in economics from Cornell University. Lopez-Calva comes to the position of Global Director of the Poverty and Equity Global Practice with a commitment to advance four key priorities:
(i) positioning poverty reduction and equitable growth at the top of the international development agenda;
(ii) expanding the technical expertise of global practice from the measurement and monitoring of poverty and inequality to cutting-edge policy analysis for pro-poor development;
(iii) formulating clear strategic directions for the Global Practice, implementing these priorities in global and regional programs using formal and informal authority, and representing the World Bank Group externally; and
(iv) bring conceptual clarity and operational implications to the debate on the linkages between climate action and equity.

Jeffrey Sachs

Director of the Sustainable Development Center, Columbia University.

Sachs is widely recognized for bold and effective strategies to address complex challenges including the escape from extreme poverty, the global battle against human-induced climate change, international debt and financial crises, national economic reforms, and the control of pandemic and epidemic diseases.

Sachs serves as the Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, where he holds the rank of University Professor, the university’s highest academic rank. Sachs was Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University from 2002 to 2016. He is President of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, Co-Chair of the Council of Engineers for the Energy Transition, academician of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences at the Vatican, Commissioner of the UN Broadband Commission for Development, Tan Sri Jeffrey Cheah Honorary Distinguished Professor at Sunway University, and SDG Advocate for UN Secretary General António Guterres. From 2001-18, Sachs served as Special Advisor to UN Secretaries-General Kofi Annan (2001-7), Ban Ki-moon (2008-16), and António Guterres (2017-18).

Sachs has authored and edited numerous books, including three New York Times bestsellers: The End of Poverty (2005), Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet (2008), and The Price of Civilization (2011). Other books include To Move the World: JFK’s Quest for Peace (2013), The Age of Sustainable Development (2015), Building the New American Economy: Smart, Fair & Sustainable (2017), A New Foreign Policy: Beyond American Exceptionalism (2018), The Ages of Globalization: Geography, Technology, and Institutions (2020), and most recently, Ethics in Action for Sustainable Development (2022).

Sachs is the 2022 recipient of the Tang Prize in Sustainable Development and was the co-recipient of the 2015 Blue Planet Prize, the leading global prize for environmental leadership. He was twice named among Time magazine’s 100 most influential world leaders. Sachs has received 42 honorary doctorates, and his recent awards include the 2022 Tang Prize in Sustainable Development, the Legion of Honor by decree of the President of the Republic of France, and the Order of the Cross from the President of Estonia.

Prior to joining Columbia, Sachs spent over twenty years as a professor at Harvard University, most recently as the Galen L. Stone Professor of International Trade. A native of Detroit, Michigan, Sachs received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees at Harvard.

Wellington Dias

Minister of Development and Social Assistance, Family and Fight against Hunger and former governor of Piauí

Brazil

José Wellington Barroso de Araújo Dias was born in the city of Oeiras, Piauí, on March 5, 1962 and grew up in Paes Landim, in the Fidalgo Valley. He studied Literature at the Federal University of Piauí (1982). He studied Public Policy and Government at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (1998) and specialized abroad. A banker and writer, Wellington worked at Banco do Nordeste do Brasil, Banco do Estado do Piauí and Caixa Econômica Federal, where he is a retired career civil servant. He also worked at Rádio Difusora, in Teresina. He joined the PT in 1985 and began his union activity as a member of the Central Única dos Trabalhadores (CUT), and president of the Caixa Econômica Federal Staff Association (Apcef) between 1986 and 1989. He was president of the Bankers' Union of the State of Piauí between 1989 and 1992. He has also dedicated himself to literature. He is a short story writer and author of the book Macambira, awarded in 1980 and published in 1995. Other stories of his have been awarded: Maria Valei-me (1984) - which received an honorable mention in the “João Pinheiro Short Story Contest”, organized by the Department of Culture of the State of Piauí. He wrote the plays “Reisados da Minha Terra” and “Estamos Todos Inocentes”. He was included in the collections “O Conto na Literatura Piauiense” (1981) and “Novos Contos Piauienses” (1984). In June 2007 he launched the book “As Tiradas de Tio Sinhô”. In September 2020, Dias assumed the presidency of the Northeast Consortium and excelled in the articulation for the purchase of vaccines independently from the Federal Government, as well as in public policies for health, social and economic development. In December 2021, the former governor of Piauí received the Sérgio Arouca Health Award for his work during the pandemic, acting as coordinator of the Covid vaccination and pandemic confrontation theme at the National Governors Forum and president of the Northeast Consortium. In 2022, Wellington Dias was national coordinator of the Brazilian Governors' Forum. In March, he left his position as governor to run for the Federal Senate, to which he was elected, in addition to acting as national coordinator of Lula's campaign for the Presidency of the Republic.

How to Move Forward?

Reintroducing Poverty to the Forefront of Public Debate

Reducing poverty requires a strong political commitment from all sectors of society. To accelerate progress, it is imperative to re-establish poverty as a central issue in public debate. In recent years, the focus on poverty has been overshadowed by a series of severe crises affecting the region. Beyond the significant impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the escalating climate crisis, with massive fires in areas like the Amazon and the Chaco, and increased flooding in other regions, has had a devastating effect. Governance crises have also emerged, including in countries that traditionally excelled in economic growth and poverty reduction, such as Chile. Moreover, migration crises, once primarily directed towards the United States, have now developed an intraregional dimension, imposing pressure on public expenditure and, at times, leading to conflicts within recipient communities. Violence has spread to previously peaceful countries, with organized crime posing an ever-greater threat. These crises have diverted attention away from the poverty debate, even though poverty remains a fundamental factor in each of these challenges.

Public discourse should stimulate action and encourage a more ambitious discussion on the determinants of poverty and their policy implications. Key determinants such as high inequality, sluggish economic growth, environmental degradation, entrenched power structures, inadequate social protection systems, ineffective governance, a fragile rule of law, an unfavorable business environment, low female labor force participation, informality, crime and violence, and a lack of innovation, have all been identified as determinants of poverty in the region (UNDP, 2021; IMF, 2024; CODS, 2020). A comprehensive debate is needed to distil the most critical aspects and understand their interconnections to optimize efforts towards achieving sustainable development and equitable growth.

Furthermore, public debate is essential concerning the data needed to make meaningful progress in poverty reduction. While the availability of data in the region has improved, there remain issues related to periodicity, potential for disaggregation, and gaps in crucial topics. For example, the inability to link data on crime and violence with poverty data hampers a comprehensive understanding of these phenomena. Thus, a rigorous debate on where to channel limited resources for data collection is vital to generate robust data that can effectively guide policy decisions.

New Instruments for Poverty Reduction

As previously highlighted, economic growth and the widespread implementation of conditional cash transfer programs have played a pivotal role in reducing income poverty across the region in recent decades. However, from 2015 onwards, the pace of poverty reduction began to slow due to declining growth rates, a trend further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Three years after the crisis, income poverty levels in the region are only now returning to pre-pandemic figures (The World Bank, 2023). Yet, economic growth—and consequently, the fiscal capacity to fund poverty reduction initiatives—remains constrained, with regional GDP projected to expand by merely 1.6% in 2024, 2.7% in 2025, and 2.6% in 2026, rates insufficient to generate widespread prosperity (The World Bank, 2024).

Given this, the principal mechanisms that drove poverty reduction in previous years must be supplemented with innovative tools capable of maximizing poverty alleviation within a restricted fiscal environment. Aspects such as strategic planning, effective coordination, rigorous monitoring, and efficient expenditure will become increasingly crucial in the coming years. The region must foster innovation and develop a new generation of poverty reduction strategies and instruments that can effectively complement the existing frameworks.

Strengthening the Integration of Poverty Reduction Strategies with National Policies

In many cases, significant national policies that have a direct impact on poverty are formulated and implemented without a clear analysis or identification of their connections to the country's poverty reduction strategy. Policies in areas such as energy, productivity, private sector development, and environmental or climate change often have profound implications for poverty alleviation. However, these policies are frequently designed with sector-specific objectives and within a growth-oriented framework, rather than with a focus on poverty reduction. Strengthening these connections can facilitate valuable cross-fertilization between different policy agendas, thereby accelerating efforts to reduce poverty.