Equity for Children Director, Alberto Minujin, presented a paper at the Universidad Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM) to exchange ideas about evaluating public policies that help to reduce child poverty in Mexico.
The seminar, entitled “Poverty, Human Rights and Children in Latin America,” was held on September 13-14, 2012, and helped to create synergies with UNAM faculty and staff in the Human Rights, Poverty, and Public Policy program, which helps to ensure the rights of girls and children in a context of change, economic and social development.
The initiative was jointly sponsored by the Graduate Program in International Affairs (GPIA) at the New School University and the ARCOR Foundation.
Dr. Minujin presented a multidimensional approach to child poverty in Mexico from the perspective of human rights, analyzing poverty indicators that include access to basic services, levels of discrimination, exclusion and violence. Participants agreed about the need to invest in children, to effectively reduce poverty and inequality in Mexico. Dr. Minujin was accompanied by Dr. Khemvirg Puente, Coordinator of the Master and PhD Program in Government and Public Affairs and Public Administration Program at UNAM, and by Dr. Gloria Ramírez, General Coordinator of the UNESCO Chair on Human Rights and Professor of Political and Social Sciences at UNAM.
The conference also highlighted a session entitled “Childhood and Equity: Public Policy in Latin America,” which was presented by Dr. Minujin and commented on by Dr. Adriana Ortiz Ortega, titular professor at the Public Administration Center of Studies at UNAM and Dr. Iliana Yaschine Arroyo, researcher in the University Program of Studies for Development at UNAM. Both addressed the issue of poverty in Mexico from a perspective of fairness and rights. Dr. Adriana Ortiz stressed that the Equity for Children Latin America Initiative, Equidad Para la Infancia, presents an innovative approach to equity for children through methods of inclusion and redistribution. Dr. Ortiz stated the importance of linking children and poverty as a matter of public policy, especially with regard to discrimination, sexual abuse and child poverty.
Both conferences concluded with the need to ensure the right to life and dignity of all children and adolescents in Latin America through comprehensive social protection, and to strengthen public policies that provide and protect the rights of children.
Alberto Minujin’s presentation on “Childhood, Equity and Public Policies” is available in Spanish for download below.
