Resultados de la Prueba Piloto de Captacion en la Argentina

Afro-descendents in Latin America represent about one-fifth of the total population of the region, and next to the indigenous population, are the poorest of the continent. In spite of national efforts and achievements to implement universally applicable policies, there remain gaps of inequity and the invisibility of Afro-descendents persists in different countries of the region. To close these gaps of inequity implies on one hand, acknowledging that it is impossible to advance inclusive public policies if there are no statistics that are disaggregated, clear, and systemic for this segment of the population that indicate their living conditions in relation to and compared with the rest of the society. On the other hand, it implies it is necessary to combine the implementation of universally applied public policies with other policies expressly directed at increasing equality of opportunity among population segments that have been excluded and discriminated against for centuries. Systemic invisibility of Afro-descendants has obstructed the building of a consensus about their definition, and about framing appropriate questions that would generate information about their conditions or the development of alternatives so that the community can actively participate in collecting official information about their own living conditions. This report is part of a series, which presents the results of integrating demographics -- through household surveys and living standard surveys - with questions about racial self-identification; it supports building and advancing this consensus. This report discusses the design of a methodology that aimed to comprehend the Afro-descendent population in Argentina. The investigation was developed in three stages and was based on a pilot program undertaken and financed jointly by the World Bank and the Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero. This report divided in 6 sections, beginning with a history of and statistics about Afrodescendents in Argentina. This is followed by presenting the methodology used in the Prueba Piloto, and the actual analysis (a regression analysis) of the census taken of the Afrodecendent population. Conclusions follow concerning the adequacy of the instrument and the interpretation of its results follow; in spite of its limitations, the instrument succeeded in capturing differences between Afrodescendents and the rest of the population in health, occupation, and critical household indicators. The report ends with recommendations.