Activities of the Regional Commissions

Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) 

ECLAC Seminar “Development Theory at the Dawn of the 21st Century”

ECLAC held a seminar in Santiago on 28-29 August 2001, on “Development Theory at the Dawn of the 21st Century”, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Raśl Prebisch, a distinguished Argentine economist, ECLAC’s founding father and contributor to the economic development of the region. Among the guests were the President of Chile, the President of the Inter-American Development Bank and the Secretary-General of UNCTAD.

Other noted international academics and politicians participated in panel presentations and debates on:

• Economic Development from a Historic Perspective;

• The International Economy, Integration and Developing Countries;

• Anti-Cyclic Policies and Macroeconomic Stability;

• Development and Economic Growth;

• Policies for Productive Development;

• Poverty and Social Protection;

• Employment and Income Distribution.

The evening before, the Executive Secretary of ECLAC, Mr. Jose Antonio Ocampo officially inaugurated the “Raśl Prebisch Chair” which will be held by distinguished public figures involved in Latin American economics. The first Magisterial Lecture, called "The Roots of Globalization," was given by Brazilian economist Celso Furtado, who was honoured with an exhibit covering his work through the years. Mr. Furtado is considered to be one of the region's most influential economists of the past century, and has received numerous important academic distinctions, including the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Prize in 1946 and the Jabuti Prize for essays in 1999.

 ECLAC’s Caribbean Sub-regional Office active in resisting domestic violence and providing legal redress

While it is a truism that the law alone will not bring an end to domestic violence, it does make an important normative statement defining (as it does) what is criminal and deviant behaviour. Following a request from the Chief Justice of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (ECSC), the secretariat of ECLAC’s sub-regional Headquarters for the Caribbean is providing assistance to a project being implemented by the Court on Family law and domestic violence legislative reform. The legislative framework, whatever its limitations, represents a tremendous advance in giving women the right and the legitimate expectations to protection by the criminal justice system. A recent evaluation carried out in Antigua and Barbuda, St. Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, indicates compellingly that women consider the protection order to be a shield. In the words of one Vincentian applicant, “the act has made a big difference because people now have an avenue to resort to and they are fairly confident of receiving justice.”

The research project also highlights the need for continued training for police, judicial officers and lawyers on the nature, extent, and causes of domestic violence; sensitivity to gender bias and sexual issues; and the role of the actors within the justice system.

The Family Law and Domestic Legal and Judicial Reform initiative has two major objectives. The first relates to the improvement in the efficiency and effectiveness of the judicial system in the countries which share the ECSC, and the second is for the eradication of gender-based inequality both in the content of the law as well as of unequal results of apparently non-discriminatory legal provisions. The project is also being supported by UNICEF (Barbados office) as well as by the Canadian International Development Agency.

In determining the direction of legislative reform, the project uses as a guide the obligations elaborated in the international human rights instruments of the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (the Women’s Convention) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The Gender Focus in Economic-Labour Policies in Latin America

With the participation of Ministers of State from Argentina, Ecuador, Chile, El Salvador and Paraguay, ECLAC hosted a regional seminar “Toward Institutionalizing a Gender Perspective within Economic-Labour Policies in Latin America”, on 12 - 13 June 2001 at ECLAC headquarters in Santiago. ECLAC and the German development agency (GTZ) organized the meeting, with support from the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM)

The purpose of the seminar was to debate economic and labour analyses using a gender perspective in order to develop more equitable public policies. National studies on employment in the Argentine health sector, tourism in Ecuador, and the maquila sector in El Salvador were also debated. The event was organized as part of the project “Institutionalization of a Gender Focus,” in ECLAC and the sector ministries, being carried out with GTZ.

ECLAC study analyzes the role of social capital in poverty

Over half the children and adolescents and 43.8% of the total population of Latin America and the Caribbean live in poverty. Reducing poverty is one of the most important challenges facing these countries, but results of the fight against this scourge have been slim and people are already talking about the exhaustion of anti-poverty policies.

The paper Social Capital: Part of the Problem, Part of the Solution, by John Durston, anthropologist and consultant with ECLAC analyzes the role of social capital in both the persistence of and processes for overcoming poverty in the region and offers proposals where theoretical elements are backed up by concrete experiences.

The study was presented during the Regional conference “In Search of a New Paradigm: Social Capital and Poverty Reduction in Latin America and the Caribbean” organized by ECLAC and Michigan State University, in Santiago on 24-26 September 2001.

Durston sustains that just as poverty has many causes, its reduction requires a wide range of solutions using a variety of resources. He defines social capital as “the content of certain social relationships: combining attitudes of trust with conduct involving reciprocity and co-operation, which make it possible for those who possess it to obtain greater benefits than they otherwise would have achieved without this asset.”

ECLAC explores financial crisis in “successful” countries

One of the thorniest dilemmas facing modern economies in the past decade has been how to apply more efficient globalization in a context of ‘volatile globalization’. This issue is explored by the book Financial Crises in ‘Successful’ Countries, which is the result of an ECLAC research project developed with the support of the Ford Foundation. The book brings together five articles by distinguished economic specialists, who analyze several emerging economies which had been considered ‘successful’ until they ran into acute financial crises. These include Chile (in 1982 and 1999), Korea (1997), and Mexico (1995), all of which contrast with Chile's situation in 1995.

The book reveals four new features observed during recent crises affecting Latin America and Asia:

1. International capital markets have been the main generators of both positive and negative shocks, which means that financial volatility has globalized;

2. Financial flows have occurred primarily among private agents, while public finances remain relatively balanced;

3. Financial flows are characterized by inadequate regulation and safeguards in both offering and receiving countries;

4. The victims of these financial crises have been the emerging economies usually considered “successful”, which number among the most flourishing and the best organized in the developing world.

The experiences studied in the book offer significant policy lessons. Among them, the book examines a series of policies currently in fashion, including those governing the exchange rate, the capital account and macroeconomic management. It demonstrates how often these recipes have proven mistaken and offers alternatives that aim to achieve sustainable and functional macroeconomic balances for growth.

Seminar Participants Analyze Decentralization and Local Economic Development