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.…

Youth and social cohesion in Ibero-America: a model in the making. Summary

Ibero-America is living through promising times in terms of the relation between youth and development. The signs are well known, and this report provides an unprecedented compilation of evidence confirming them. The region's youth today have more years of education on average than adults, and the gap is even more favourable for youth in terms of access to new communication technologies, information and knowledge. The population dynamic indicates that the coming years will see a reduction in the proportion of young people in the overall population in most Ibero-American countries, and thi…

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 …

Jóvenes con bajo nivel educativo están atrapados en empleos de baja productividad

(9 de febrero 2010) Mientras más bajo sea el nivel educativo de los jóvenes, menor será su acceso a empleos de calidad y alta productividad, particularmente entre las mujeres, afirmó el Secretario Ejecutivo Adjunto de la CEPAL, Antonio Prado, durante el II Foro América Latina y el Caribe - Unión Europea (ALC-UE) que tiene lugar en Lima. El Foro se realiza entre el 8-10 de febrero bajo el título "La promoción del trabajo decente para los jóvenes, nuevas capacidades para nuevos empleos", y en él participan ministros de Estado, altos funcionarios de gobierno de una docena de países de la región y…

Urban Unemployment Will Keep Rising in Latin America and the Caribbean and is Seen Reaching 9.4% in 2017

The low economic growth experienced by Latin American and Caribbean countries in the last few years will continue affecting the region’s labour market performance in 2017. According to the latest estimates, the rate of regional urban unemployment could reach 9.4% on average this year, which represents a 0.5 percentage point increase from the 8.9% recorded in 2016, ECLAC and the ILO indicated today in a new joint report. The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) released the newest edition of their joint publication Emplo…

Empowering the 40% of Young Latin Americans Not in Formal Jobs, Education or Training could Spark New Growth Engines

Latin America and the Caribbean’s (LAC) GDP will shrink by between 0.9% and 1% in 2016, according to the latest estimates, the second consecutive year of negative growth and a rate of contraction the region has not seen since the early 1980s. According to the Latin American Economic Outlook 2017, the region should recover in 2017, but with modest GDP growth of between 1.5% and 2%, below expected growth in advanced economies. According to the report, jointly produced by the Development Centre of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the United Nations Commission for…

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

Active labor market programs for the integration of youths and immigrants into the labor market: the Nordic experience

The purpose of this study is to survey the evaluation literature on active labor market programs (ALMPs) in the Nordic labor market in order to provide a general overview of the success and failure of different types of ALMPs as well as a more detailed account of the Nordic experience with targeted programs towards vulnerable groups such as unemployed youth and immigrants. The consensus in the evaluation literature is that the types of ALMPs that are efficient in reducing unemployment duration and increasing employment chances for the unemployed in general are also the most efficient for vulne…

Economic Survey of Latin America and the Caribbean 2008-2009: Policies for creating quality jobs

La publicación del sexagésimo primer Estudio económico de América Latina y el Caribe, correspondiente al bienio 2008-2009, tiene lugar en un momento crítico del desarrollo económico de América Latina y el Caribe. Se interrumpió una fase de crecimiento de duración y características inéditas en la historia reciente y la región sufre una contracción de su producto, con efectos negativos en el bienestar de la población que inevitablemente se reflejarán en retrocesos de las variables sociales. Dos características diferencian la situación actual de los muchos episodios de crisis que afectaron a la r…

Policy Brief: Planning for resilience: an integrated approach to tackle climate change in the Caribbean

The Caribbean subregion is exceptionally vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and extreme weather events. Vulnerability is a key multidimensional concept at the heart of resilience building, relating to each country’s multiple spatial and socioeconomic risks and conditions. In fact, due to its geographical location and concentration of population and activities in low-lying coastal areas, the Caribbean is the second most hazard-prone region in the world...Moreover, impacts of extreme weather events on Caribbean small economies are of national proportions. For example, in the hurricane s…

From the classroom to the workplace: Three decades of evidence for Latin America

This study draws on household survey results spanning a period of three decades in length to analyse young people's entry into the labour market in 10 Latin American countries. It finds that: (i) the employment status of young people had deteriorated over time until seeing an improvement in the late 2000s, although youth unemployment and informality rates are still very high; (ii) young people are entering into a typical employment cycle in which they are surpassing the results obtained by adults of earlier generations. Informality is not a part of this pattern, however, indicating the ex…

Foro de los Países de América Latina y el Caribe sobre el Desarrollo Sostenible inicia con llamado a fortalecer el multilateralismo y la cooperación regional

Con un llamado a fortalecer el multilateralismo, la democracia y la cooperación regional se inauguró hoy en la sede de la CEPAL en Santiago de Chile, la tercera reunión del Foro de los Países de América Latina y el Caribe sobre el Desarrollo Sostenible, que reúne a representantes de gobiernos, sociedad civil, organismos internacionales, sector privado y academia, con el objetivo de revisar los avances y desafíos de la implementación de la Agenda 2030 en la región. El evento de alto nivel, organizado por la Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL) y el Gobierno de Cuba -en su…

The Case for Economic Restructuring Post-COVID-19 in the Caribbean

Since the global crisis of 2008-2009, there has been less confidence in the primacy of markets to lead sustainable development among developing countries in general and small island developing States (SIDS) in particular. It is acknowledged that markets need discipline and an institutional context that can support private gains while reducing social costs and delivering less inequality. Prompted by declining competitiveness in leading sectors, and a commitment to addressing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), governments in the subregion have been developing long-term plan…

Skill WAVE: Workshop for Action, Vision and Entrepreneurship - Antigua and Barbuda

ECLAC Caribbean will be hosting a series of capacity building workshops, meant to build entrepreneurship skills among target groups in each country. The workshops should provide tools necessary to enhance entrepreneurship and related business activities, specifically targeted toward youth and female entrepreneurs.…

The Role of Data for SDG Advancement in the Caribbean

Skill WAVE: Workshop for Action, Vision and Entrepreneurship - Grenada

ECLAC Caribbean will be hosting a series of capacity building workshops, meant to build entrepreneurship skills among target groups in each country. The workshops should provide tools necessary to enhance entrepreneurship and related business activities, specifically targeted toward youth and female entrepreneurs.…