A new report from the United Nations has revealed that poverty rates fell to their lowest level on record in 2023.
Data found that the regional poverty rate fell by 1.5% in 2023 compared to the year before, with the decline being attributed to improvements in living standards in Brazil.
While inequality continues to exist in the region, the UN’s Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) said that improvements to social security schemes, including pensions, have helped to improve living standards.
In two decades, the number of pensioners living in poverty in Latin America fell by 14.3%, it added.
José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), said non-contributory social protection can have a “significant impact” on poverty reduction.
“The strengthening of social protection systems in Latin America and the Caribbean, in particular non-contributory social protection, is a strategic space for adopting an integrated approach that can have significant impact on poverty reduction, the diverse causes of inequality, and the low levels of social cohesion in Latin America and the Caribbean and, therefore, on the attainment of inclusive social development,” he said.
The percentage of the Latin American population living in poverty in 2023 was 27.3%, marking a decline of 1.5% compared with the year before, and of more than 5% lower than the figure in 2020, the most critical year of the coronavirus pandemic.
The lowest figure registered since records began, the extreme poverty rate which covered 10.6% of the region’s population is 0.5% lower than in 2022.
“Tackling the development crisis in the region necessitates moving towards universal, comprehensive, sustainable and resilient social protection systems. To that end, we must urgently reinforce the social institutional framework with technical, operational, political and prospective (TOPP) capabilities,” ECLAC’s Executive Secretary added.
The Second World Summit for Social Development in 2025 has been identified as key for addressing these challenges.
However, despite an improvement, there is still much more work to be done. An estimated 172 million people in the region still living in poverty, most of them women.