Challenges for Social Policy in a Less Favorable Macroeconomic Context

Over the last decade and a half Latin America and the Caribbean have made notable advances in reducing poverty and improving social outcomes. Extreme poverty fell by more than a third from 19.3 % in 2002 to 12.0 % in 2014; and inequality, as measured by the Gini coefficient, fell from 0.56 to 0.51. In parallel, child mortality fell from 32 to 18 deaths per 100,000 children from 2000 to 2013 (see UN IGME 2014). By 2013, school attendance rates among 6–11-year-olds reached 98 %, and among 12–17-year-olds rose to 87 %. Although gaps remain across income and demographic groups, the biggest advances in reducing chronic malnutrition and improving school age-attendance profiles occurred for children from the lowest socioeconomic groups.