The millennium development goals and the challenges facing Latin America and the Caribbean in making progress towards higher levels of well-being, better human capital and more equal opportunities

This document takes up a number of the points raised in the 2005 report by ECLAC and other UN agencies on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Latin America and the Caribbean. It provides further discussion on the type of problems and challenges facing the region in five areas that are either included in the MDGs or closely related to them (poverty, hunger and child malnutrition, education, health and children). The document makes recommendations for the region's governments and countries in these five areas.…

Building equity from the beginning: the children and adolescents of Ibero-America

Foreword The Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State and Government,which met in Panama in November 2000, devoted a good part of its deliberations to the subject o children and youth.It recognized the importance of their rights,as clearly enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child,which all the Ibero-American countries have signed.It also identified the most urgent problems acing boys,girls and adolescents and,in the Panama Declaration 2000,set forth the strategies for resolving them. As these priorities were established,it became clear that there was a ne…

What schools teach us about educating poor children in Chile?

A great deal of effort has been put into education reform in Latin America since the early 1990s. Extending the coverage of educational opportunities and improving the quality of the education delivered in schools are crucial for the countries of the region, where education in State schools has often been of a low standard. It is not enough just to study macro education policies as they are formulated by governments and implemented by centralized ministries of education. What is promised or envisioned on paper is often quite different from what actually happens in school establishments. It is …

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…

Selected online learning experiences in the Caribbean during COVID-19. Policy Brief

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused widespread closure of schools and disruption of education systems worldwide, requiring unprecedented adaptation to ensure learning continuity for students. In place of classroom learning, Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have been adopted to support online distance learning – with mixed results. While Caribbean governments have piloted a range of online learning modalities, many children in the subregion, especially those from poor and rural households, were not able to leverage those facilities. As a result of a lack of access to the Internet …

ONU: Asegurar la participación de las niñas, niños, adolescentes y juventudes es crucial para el éxito de la Agenda 2030 en América Latina y el Caribe

Un llamado a asegurar la participación de las niñas, niños, adolescentes y juventudes de América Latina y el Caribe en todas las etapas de implementación de la Agenda 2030 y a valorar sus contribuciones para así alcanzar el desarrollo sostenible en la región, sin dejar a nadie atrás, hicieron este lunes 24 de abril representantes de diversas agencias de la Organización de las Naciones Unidas (ONU) que participaron en el Quinto Foro de Niñas, Niños, Adolescentes y Juventudes de América Latina y el Caribe 2030 realizado en Santiago, Chile. La ONU reconoce el liderazgo de las y los jóvenes en el …

The girl child and boys in the Caribbean: progress and challenges

This issue of Gender Dialogue focuses attention on the status of the girl child in the Caribbean and examines the ongoing progress and challenges in fulfilment of international mandates such as the Beijing Platform for Action, the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the Millennium Development Goals and other relevant commitments.…

Road safety is everyone’s business: Joint Op-Ed

If you had to guess the leading cause of death for children and young people globally, what would you say? Malaria? Pneumonia? Suicide? They’re all up there, but no, it’s road crashes. Cars have been around for over 120 years, and we know how to prevent these tragedies. Yet road crashes still claim more than two lives every minute, and nearly 1.2 million lives every year. If these deaths were caused by a virus, it would be called a pandemic and the world would scramble to develop vaccines to prevent them. And yet reducing road deaths has long been overlooked, misunderstood …

Addressing the adverse impacts of non-communicable diseases on the sustainable development of Caribbean countries

The high prevalence of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in the Caribbean calls for sustained efforts to control these diseases and their risk factors. Such efforts are envisaged in several global, regional and national frameworks that exist to address the problem of NCDs, including the disease and economic burdens that they pose to countries around the world. In the Caribbean, the Heads of Government have long articulated the relationship between health and development, a position that aligns well with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’s commitments to ensure that individuals fulfil …

Comprehensive national child protection systems: legal basis and current practice in Latin America and the Caribbean

The present document offers a comparative study of the legal child protection codes and practices in Latin America and the Caribbean, both in terms of the legal grounds for establishing a Comprehensive National Child Protection System (NCPS) and as a basis for examining current child-protection practice, institutions, functions and powers established within such legal frameworks. The study also includes an analysis of the status of implementation and start-up of NCPSs in compliance with national mandates in four countries of Latin America and the Caribbean: Uruguay, representing the Southern C…

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3 Good health and well-being

Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.…

Niñas, niños, adolescentes y juventudes demandan mayor participación en el proceso de desarrollo de América Latina y el Caribe

Niñas, niños, adolescentes y juventudes de la región abogaron hoy por mayores niveles de participación en el proceso de desarrollo sostenible de América Latina y el Caribe, durante un encuentro realizado en el marco de la séptima reunión del Foro de los Países de América Latina y el Caribe sobre el Desarrollo Sostenible, que se celebra del 15 al 18 de abril de 2024 en la sede de la Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL) en Santiago, Chile. Durante la edición 2024 del Foro de niñas, niños, adolescentes y juventudes de América Latina y el Caribe, las juventudes expusieron sus…

Un centenar de autoridades globales y regionales debaten cómo reducir las desigualdades para impulsar el crecimiento sostenible

Ciudad de Panamá, 12 de septiembre de 2018 – Más de 200 especialistas en desarrollo sostenible a nivel global y regional y autoridades de países de América Latina y el Caribe, entre ellos tres vicepresidentas y cerca de 40 ministros, discuten nuevas maneras de reducir las desigualdades para poder sostener las ganancias en lo social, económico y ambiental durante dos días en el X Foro Ministerial para el Desarrollo en América Latina y el Caribe (undp.org/forolac) que empezó hoy en Ciudad de Panamá. En el Foro titulado “Alianzas para la reducción de desigualdades estructurales en el marco de lo…

Almost 63% of Children and Adolescents in the Region Suffer some Type of Poverty

(22 June 2010) Almost 63% of children and adolescents in the region suffer some type of poverty, defined in terms of the deprivations that affect the exercise of their rights, in addition to household income, according to a study conducted by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). In the article, "Child poverty: a priority challenge" published in the latest issue of the newsletter "Challenges", Ernesto Espíndola and María Nieves Rico, of ECLAC's Social Development Division, assert that measuring poverty implies consi…

ECLAC and UNICEF Call to Meet Goal of Universal Birth Registration by 2015

(29 December 2011) According to the thirteenth issue of the bulletin Challenges launched today by ECLAC and UNICEF, it is estimated that 10% of children under the age of five in Latin America and the Caribbean are not registered, which infringes their ability to exercise their social, economic, civil and cultural rights. The article "A rights-based approach to birth registration in Latin America and the Caribbean", which is included in the latest issue of the joint publication, highlights that in total there are 6.5 million children without birth certificates in the region. It indicates that…

Children and HIV/AIDS in Latin America and the Caribbean

In Latin America, around 36,000 children under 15 have HIV, and in the Caribbean estimates are of 11,000 children living with the virus. Although some progress has been made in the region in the care and treatment of adults that is not the case with children. This issue number 7 of Challenges is devoted to the latest information on the vertical transmission (mother-to-child) of HIV in Latin America and the Caribbean, and how children are accessing life-saving treatment in the region.…

Children and HIV/AIDS in Latin America and the Caribbean

In Latin America, around 36,000 children under 15 have HIV, and in the Caribbean estimates are of 11,000 children living with the virus. Although some progress has been made in the region in the care and treatment of adults that is not the case with children. This issue number 7 of Challenges is devoted to the latest information on the vertical transmission (mother-to-child) of HIV in Latin America and the Caribbean, and how children are accessing life-saving treatment in the region.…

Report of the twenty-ninth session of the Caribbean Development and Cooperation Committee of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean

Model for analysing the social and economic impact of child undernutrition in Latin America

At present, Latin America is in a paradox, as the effects of both extremes of poor nutrition, obesity, and undernutrition, are present simultaneously in a region where the food supply is much greater than it has been historically and in most cases exceeds the population's dietary energy requirements. The prevalence of undernutrition is not a mere accident in the region, but a reflection of huge disparities in income and the lack of priority given to food and nutrition issues on the countries' political agendas. Aside from …

Confronting inequality: Social protection for families and early childhood through monetary transfers and care worldwide

This paper analyzes social protection policies for families and early childhood focusing on three main policies: family allowances and other types of monetary transfers for families with children, work leaves and early childhood education and care (ECEC) policies worldwide. It analyzes the design and reform of policies which protect families with children and early childhood comparing Latin America with other regions in the world. This analysis not only includes the basic description of these policies and its main features worldwide and across regions, but also pays attention to how these poli…