LIMA, Peru, March 12 2015 – A new World Bank report, Left Behind, Chronic Poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean, takes a closer look at the region’s entrenched poor, who and where they are, and how policies and thinking will need to change in order to more effectively assist them.
The report said one out of every five people in the region or around 130 million people have never known anything but poverty, subsisting on less than US$4-a-day throughout their lives.
“These are the region´s chronically poor, who have remained so despite unprecedented inroads against poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean since the turn of the century,” the report said.
“Their situation is becoming more precarious as the economic boom that significantly contributed to reduce poverty dwindles.”
Regional GDP growth has slowed, from about six percent in 2010 to an estimated 0.8 percent in 2014. This contraction will likely take away one of the biggest drivers behind the strong reduction in poverty: an improved job market.
“In addition to focusing on access to basic services and good jobs, policies must also take into account the very real social and aspirational barriers facing the chronically poor in Latin America,” said Ana Revenga, Senior Director for Poverty at the World Bank Group. “If this remains unaddressed, it will be far too easy for the most vulnerable to fall through the cracks of social safety nets, no matter how well-targeted these programmes are.”
