Notas de Población N° 62

CEPAL Review no.57

Revista de la CEPAL no.57

The United Nations and ECLAC at the half-century mark of the Organization

The Executive Secretary shares some considerations on the balance of the first 50 years of the United Nations and ECLAC, and the possible course that both organizations may follow during the next half-a-century. He specially emphasizes that the central objetives of the United Nations express universal values that can hardly be opposed, as they never lose their validity and cannot give rise to major disagreement. He also mentions the three major areas that give rise to discrepancies: the adaptation of the Organization's objectives to the present-day context; the way responsibilities are sh…

The creation of the United Nations and ECLAC

As an active participant in the creation of both institutions, Mr. Hernán Santa Cruz relates the establishment and the first steps of the Organization of the United Nations, as well as the origins and foundation of the Economic Commission for Latin America.…

Human rights and the child

This article refers to the increasing importance being given to the children, as human people, with equal rights. It relates how, in 1959, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed the value and dignity of the child as a human person and the need to give children the necessary protection for their growth and development. It describes the approval, in November 1989, of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, in the form of a legally binding agreement that the 171 ratifying States are obliged to fulfil. This constitutes one of the greatest achievements of the United Nations during its fi…

Governance, competitiveness and social integration

This article seeks to set forth the grounds for an approach integrating political governance, economic competitiveness and social integration as interdependent variables. To this end, it looks at the possibilities for Latin American society to simultaneously increase its capacity for democratic self-government, improve its economic competitiveness and tackle the main problems of social exclusion and poverty, since if this is not done the region will find it more difficult to take its place in the concert of modern democratic nations. In order to analyse the evolution of those variables from a …

Port privatization, labour reform and social equity

Governments of the ECLAC region have promulgated labour regimes which support port workers' desire for stable wages and job security, isolate them from market signals and create cargo-handling monopolies. The advent of a global economy, the introduction of export-led growth policies, the acquisition of advanced cargo-handling equipment and electronic information systems, and the participation of private interests in the offer of port services permit enterprises to compare, purchase and employ raw materials, labour and service inputs worldwide, and have transformed the traditional concept …

New trends in wage policies

Up to a few years ago, wages policy was a central instrument of macroeconomic policy in Latin America, and there was a great deal of State intervention in it. Now, in the early part of the 1990s, however, the countries of the region are mostly in a more balanced macroeconomic situation and have gone a long way in their process of trade openness. Both these factors heighten the importance of costs, in view of the need to maintain the competitiveness of national production, so that the search for instruments to facilitate control over costs, including labour costs, is now a constant concern. The…

Panama and Central American economic integration

This article looks at the benefits that Panama could derive from its possible integration with the countries of the Central American Common Market (CACM);. First of all, Panama's production structure is analysed in terms of the phenomenon known as the Dutch disease : this reveals the de-industrializing effect that the booms in the services sector have had on the economy. An examination is then made of the advantages that Panama could derive from gradual integration with the CACM countries in terms of intra-industry exports, promotion of investments, competition and modernizatio…

Transnationalization and integration of production in Latin America

Trade among the ALADI countries has grown with exceptional vigour so far in the 1990s, especially in the branches of metal products, machinery and equipment, chemical products, and foodstuffs, beverages and tobacco. In order for this dynamic growth to be sustainable in the long term, these countries must develop their intra-industry trade by promoting reciprocal supply in those branches. The bulk of transnational productive capital in Latin America is concentrated in those branches, and it is in the metal products, machinery and equipment sector that the swiftest increase in intra-industry tra…

Carta Circular de la Red de Cooperación en la Gestión Integral de Recursos Hídricos para el Desarrollo Sustentable en América Latina y el Caribe N° 3

Este tercer número de la Carta Circular está dirigido principalmente a la discusión sobre la participación privada en la administración de los servicios relacionados con los recursos hfdricos.…

Reforma del sector salud, satisfacción del consumidor y contención de costos

El sector salud atraviesa una etapa de gran conflictualidad a escala universal. Los recursos parecerían no alcanzar para cubrir adecuadamente las necesidades de atención de la población y sin embargo son utilizados en el marco de un modelo de organización sectorial fuertemente cargado de irracionalidad en el que resalta la sobreprestación de servicios en ciertos ámbitos de la comunidad y la falta de cobertura en otros. La reforma del sector salud aparece así como un tema de suma importancia en la agenda de política pública tanto de países desarrollados como de aquellos en vías de desarrollo. L…

Calidad y equidad de la educación media en Chile: rezagos estructurales y criterios emergentes

Bajo el título Calidad y equidad de la educación media en Chile: rezagos estructurales y criterios emergentes este número de la serie Políticas Sociales reúne las ponencias presentadas a la primera mesa redonda del Seminario-taller Reforma de la educación media en Chile: ¿hacia una mayor equidad?, realizado en la CEPAL en Santiago de Chile el 11 y 12 de abril de 1995. La primera mesa redonda se centró en el tratamiento de los aspectos generales de la calidad y equidad de la educación media; la segunda mesa en los aspectos exógenos al sistema educativo que tienen que ver c…

Digest of selected demographic and social indicators 1960-1994 for CDCC member countries

Viabilidad económica e institucional de la reforma educativa en Chile

Bajo el título Viabilidad económica e institucional de la reforma educativa en Chile este número de la serie Políticas Sociales reúne las ponencias presentadas a la cuarta mesa redonda del Seminario-taller Reforma de la educación media en Chile: ¿hacia una mayor equidad?, realizado en la CEPAL en Santiago de Chile el 11 y12 de abril de 1995. La primera mesa redonda se centró en el tratamiento de los aspectos generales de la calidad y equidad de la educación media; la segunda, en los aspectos exógenos al sistema educativo que tienen que ver con la calidad y equidad …

Variables extrapedagógicas y equidad en la educación media: hogar, subjetividad y cultura escolar

Bajo el título Variables, extrapedagógicas y equidad en la educación media: hogar, subjetividad y cultura escolar este número de la serie Políticas Sociales reúne las ponencias presentadas en la segunda mesa redonda del Seminario-taller Reforma de la educación media en Chile: ¿hacia una mayor equidad?, realizado en la CEPAL en Santiago de Chile el 11 y 12 de abril de 1995. La primera mesa redonda se centró en el tratamiento de los aspectos generales de la calidad y equidad de la educación media; la segunda, en los aspectos exógenos al sistema educativo que tienen que ver…

Educación secundaria y oportunidades de empleo e ingreso en Chile

Bajo el título Educación secundaria y oportunidades de empleo e ingreso en Chile este número de la serie Políticas Sociales reúne las ponencias presentadas a la tercera mesa redonda del Seminario-taller Reforma de la educación media en Chile: ¿hacia una mayor equidad?, realizado en la CEPAL en Santiago de Chile el 11 y 12 de abril de 1995. La primera mesa redonda del seminario se centró en el tratamiento de los aspectos generales de la calidad y equidad de la educación media; la segunda, en los aspectos exógenos al sistema educativo que tienen que ver con la calida…

Preliminary Overview of the Economies of Latin America and the Caribbean 1995

Preliminary Overview of the Economies of Latin America and the Caribbean 1995