Today, 30% of Latin American children live in highly precarious households. And this share of the child population continues to increase. In coming years, a majority of the region’s children will be living in cities with huge social inequality, deteriorating climate and increasing informal settlements; and although most cities in the region have the necessary infrastructure to guarantee wellbeing and full early childhood development, these urban benefits will not be available to all.
Ten recommendations to build a more just society include:
- Ensure that policies and interventions explicitly include marginalized and disadvantaged populations, and focus on the youngest children.
- Prioritize community and context-based approaches, rather than “top down” approaches.
- Incorporate the equity approach in programming and policies based on evidence.
- Promote the participation of the most vulnerable populations, especially children and young people, not only as beneficiaries but also as agents of social change.
- Invest in inclusive social protection strategies as a key component of public policy.
- Prioritize policies and programs on poverty reduction while leveraging macroeconomic structures through progressive taxation and deepening measures against corruption, illicit financial transfers and tax evasion.
- Establish holistic responses and policies for all stages of life based on cross-sectoral approaches to address multidimensional and overlapping deprivations.
- Develop measurable goals to monitor progress in reducing gaps in social and economic inequality.
- Promote and incorporate an equity approach in institutional, organizational and policy frameworks, beyond gender issues developed in recent decades.
- Develop a consistent terminology of the key components of the concept of equity.
Read the full post in Spanish here.
This post was published on the Inter-American Development Bank blog on March 1, 2016.
