The decade just coming toan end has been both outstanding and contradictory. The strength of humancreativity has once against made itself felt in the technological revolutionthat we are experiencing. This process, along with decisions regarding economicliberalization, have sped up economic world-wide interdependence. However, worldeconomic and social development provide constant signs of our inability to puttechnological development and market forces to work for the benefit of all.
As an increasingly broadrange of studies shows, for the last 25 years of the 20th century world-wideeconomic inequalities widened at what was perhaps unprecedented speed. This hasoccurred among countries as well as within them. Income distribution hasdeteriorated in many industrialised and developing countries, concentrating 57%of the world's population, while it has only improved for 16% of the world'spopulation, and remained the same for the rest. This growing inequality isperhaps the best proof that the market alone does not guarantee that thebenefits of dynamic development reach everyone.
The World SocialDevelopment Summit in Copenhagen in 1995 was one of the clearest examples ofhuman awareness of the fact that equity will only result from a collectiveeffort, directed as much at guaranteeing that the fruits of economic developmentare widely shared, as it is to managing the risks and tensions that developmentgenerates among a wide range of social groups. This is about collectivelyassuming certain "negative" risks, like those associated withunemployment, volatile income, sickness and aging so that economic players canwith greater confidence take on the "positive" risks that come withtechnological change and the opportunities generated by global markets.
The report ECLAC presentedto the Second Regional Conference in Follow-up to the World Summit for SocialDevelopment, held in Santiago, Chile 15-17 May, showed variable progress inLatin America and the Caribbean in terms of the three central issues at theSocial Summit (poverty, employment, and social integration). The number of poorhouseholds fell from 41% in 1990 to 36% in 1997, although there was no reductionin the absolute number of poor people, which remained at about 200 millionpeople. Moreover, during recent crises, this tendency to improve halted and thenumber of poor people rose by approximately 20 million, reaching 224 million by1999.
Employment in general hasperformed poorly in most of the region's countries with open unemploymentrising, job quality declining or a combination of the two. According to ECLAC'sestimates, seven of every ten jobs generated have been in the informal sector.The growing gap between wages of university-educated workers and others, whichhas occurred throughout the region, has further worsened already adverselong-term distributive tendencies in many countries.
In terms of socialintegration, changes are also ambivalent. On the positive side, we mustrecognize progress in terms of the stability of democracy and the broadening ofmechanisms for citizens' participation, as well as progress toward recognizingwomen's rights and the crucial role of the judiciary. However, less encouragingare those findings that reveal serious shortcomings in terms of socialintegration, particularly the persistence of hard-core poverty, ethnicdiscrimination, residential segregation and rising indicators of violence.
We have an ethical,political and economic imperative to defeat the overwhelming inequity within theregion, which is the worst in the world. Our prime objective must be to continueto overcome the widespread, unsustainable and undesirable conditions of povertyin which almost 40% of the region's people live. This goal demands publicresources, private co-operation, use of each country's own and externalfinancial resources, technical quality, but above all, broad national andregional commitments. Moreover, our social and political organizations mustbuild up their own ability to ensure that all citizens have equal access to theconditions necessary to live in dignity.
To achieve this goal, werequire active and integral social policies, based on the principles ofuniversality, solidarity and efficiency. Their essential purpose must be tobreak down the channels by which poverty and inequality are reproduced from onegeneration to the next, particularly educational and occupational ones. FromECLAC's point of view, therefore, education and employment are the two"master keys" to development with equity. Our studies indicate that tomaximize the likelihood of avoiding poverty, a person must have completed 11 to12 years of education. Sufficient, quality jobs and a social security systemthat functions independently of one's link to the job market are also vital.Finally, it is essential to consolidate a culture of citizenship based onidentification with collective purposes, tolerance of differences and thenegotiated solution of conflicts. In summary, to consolidate the progress andovercome the enormous lags that continue to make themselves felt throughout ourregion, policies geared to ensuring that the market serve society, and not thereverse, are absolutely essential.