The COVID-19 pandemic: the right to education of children and adolescents in Latin America and the Caribbean

The COVID-19 pandemic has clearly generated an unprecedented crisis for the entire world. The most strongly affected region has been Latin America and the Caribbean, which accounts for 18.5% of COVID-19 cases and 30.3% of deaths in the world as of October 2021, while it represents just 8.4% of the total world population. Children and adolescents have not been exempt from the effects, but rather have been particularly hard hit by the reduction in their families’ well-being and income, the forced confinement, the reduction of interpersonal contact, the closure of schools, the loss of their prima…

Essential elements of the ECLAC Caribbean Resilience Fund : a segregated portfolio trust fund. Policy Brief

Declining economic growth and competitiveness, the impact of the 2007–2009 global financial crisis, and the challenge of climate change and extreme weather events have hindered the sustainable development of Caribbean economies, the generation of sustained welfare gains and the achievement of key Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the subregion’s vulnerability to the vagaries of global aggregate demand and commodity prices, which have largely driven the subregion’s debt upwards and dampened economic growth before its onset, compromising its ec…

International Trade Outlook for Latin America and the Caribbean 2021: Pursuing a resilient and sustainable recovery

In its 2021 edition, this ECLAC annual report examines the foreign trade performance of the region’s economies during the current year, with the most recent figures available on the impact of COVID-19 and the post-pandemic recovery in the distinct countries. The publication consists of three chapters. The first analyzes the evolution of global and regional trade in the last year and their prospects for a post-pandemic recovery. The second chapter examines the challenge of achieving productive autonomy in the region’s health industry, and the third offers proposals for defining the contribution…

An innovative financing for development agenda for the recovery in Latin America and the Caribbean

COVID-19 has brought to the fore the need to address the problem of financing for development in middle-income countries, which has been characterized by the increasing decoupling of per capita income and the ability to mobilize domestic and external resources, and the disconnect between economic and social needs and the response of multilateral cooperation. This must be urgently addressed, as Latin American and Caribbean countries must recover from the effects of the pandemic and avoid another lost decade. Middle-income countries, such as those in Latin America and the Caribbean, require mult…

Digital Public Goods: Driving the Development of Digital Public Infrastructure in the Caribbean

The Hummingbird Vol. 8 No. 12

Employment Situation in Latin America and the Caribbean: Policies to protect labour relations and hiring subsidies amid the COVID-19 pandemic

Employment Situation in Latin America and the Caribbean is a twice-yearly report prepared jointly by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the Office for the Southern Cone of Latin America of the International Labour Organization (ILO). In its last edition, the two United Nations organizations analyze the effects of the crisis caused by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in the region’s labour markets during 2020 and 2021, and they stress the importance of the policies implemented by countries to mitigate this impact. According to the report, in 2021 …

Report of the Extraordinary Meeting of the Committee on South-South Cooperation: opportunities for renewed international development cooperation in Latin America and the Caribbean

The Hummingbird Vol. 8 No. 11

Resolution 4(IV). Fourth session of the Regional Conference on Social Development in Latin America and the Caribbean

Disasters and inequality in a protracted crisis: Towards universal, comprehensive, resilient and sustainable social protection systems in Latin America and the Caribbean

The region is traversing a perilous moment of great uncertainty, in which unremitting structural problems, such as poverty, inequality, exclusion and the violation of rights, are at risk of being intensified by emerging critical challenges —such as migration, the digital divide and climate change— and by the impacts of disasters that are increasingly recurrent and varied in nature and origin. In this context, the analyses and proposals set forth here are intended to underpin the discussion of alternatives for moving towards a transformative recovery with equality and sustainability, capable of…

Resilient institutions for a transformative post-pandemic recovery in Latin America and the Caribbean: Inputs for discussion

The emergency generated by the COVID-19 pandemic has turned a spotlight on the key role of the State in providing public goods and services, while the public sector has returned to the fore as the locus for emergency response and for driving the recovery. However, the State and the public sector have been rendered less effective by the weakening of public leadership and of its capacity to generate confidence in the work of State institutions. This document argues that stronger State institutions are needed to address the structural problems of the current development pattern and tackle the new…

Economic Survey of Latin America and the Caribbean 2021: Labour dynamics and employment policies for sustainable and inclusive recovery beyond the COVID-19 crisis

The 2021 edition of the Economic Survey of Latin America and the Caribbean, its seventy-third issue, consists of three parts. Part I outlines the region’s economic performance in 2020 and analyses trends in the early months of 2021, as well as the outlook for growth for 2021 and 2022. It examines the external and domestic factors that have influenced the region’s economic performance in 2020, trends for 2021, and how these factors will affect economic growth in the coming years. Part II of this edition analyses the impact of the crisis caused by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic on t…

The prolongation of the health crisis and its impact on health, the economy and social development

The protracted coronavirus disease pandemic (COVID-19) has claimed nearly 1.5 million lives in Latin America and the Caribbean and has generated more than 44 million confirmed cases since its emergence in the region in February 2020. The region accounts for nearly 20% of confirmed cases of COVID-19 and about 30% of deaths worldwide, despite having only 8.4% of the world’s population. The conditions of vulnerability that characterize the Latin America and the Caribbean region have made it particularly susceptible to the effects of the pandemic. This unprecedented crisis has highlighted the cent…

The Hummingbird Vol. 8 No. 10

Plan for self-sufficiency in health matters in Latin America and the Caribbean: Lines of action and proposals

The Plan for self-sufficiency in health matters in Latin America and the Caribbean: lines of action and proposals is a strategic document setting out lines of action to strengthen capacities to produce and distribute vaccines and medicines in the region. It was prepared by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) at the request of the Government of Mexico, in its capacity as Pro Tempore Chair of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC). The pandemic has highlighted the need for strong health systems and capacities. This document proposes seven lin…

Provisional agenda. Eighteenth meeting of the Regional Council for Planning of the Latin American and Caribbean Institute for Economic and Social Planning (ILPES)

Annotated provisional agenda. Eighteenth meeting of the Regional Council for Planning of the Latin American and Caribbean Institute for Economic and Social Planning (ILPES)

The Outlook for Agriculture and Rural Development in the Americas: A Perspective on Latin America and the Caribbean 2021-2022

This biennial report is the result of the joint efforts of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA). The health, economic and social crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic also offers opportunities for rebuilding and transformation that will strengthen resilience and reduce or prevent future crises. The pandemic has demonstrated that the principle of “rebuilding better” should be the basis of efforts to emerge from the crisis, w…

Strategies for Post COVID-19 Recovery in the Caribbean