In the past few years, the evidence-base regarding the inclusion of people with disabilities has advanced considerably, both in high- and low-to-mid income countries. This policy brief focuses on the lessons learned from rigorous studies in education, social protection and labor markets and identifies the key knowledge gaps relevant for Latin America and the Caribbean.
In recent years, significant progress has been made toward implementing policies and programs to support gender equity in Latin America and the Caribbean. However, large disparities continue to exist between men and women in educational and health outcomes. In the region, girls perform better than boys in soft skills and language at an early age and the school attendance gaps favor women at all levels.
When closing diversity gaps, one of the major challenges in Latin America and the Caribbean is the limited amount of data reflecting this topic. The few statistics that are available on vulnerable groups such as indigenous peoples and African descendants, LGBTQ persons, and people with disabilities reflect economic and social gaps in several areas. Policies designed to promote the inclusion of these groups requires identifying them and knowing what socioeconomic gaps they are facing and the causes of these inequalities.
Violence against women is widespread in Latin America and the Caribbean. On average, every day, 10 women are murdered in the region, and of the 25 countries with the highest rates of femicide in the world, 13 are in this region. Violence against women invades womens everyday lives and takes place in both public and private spheres and within all socioeconomic groups.
The indigenous peoples and African descendants in Latin America and the Caribbean are far behind the rest of the population in terms of access to education, health services, and financial services, something that is reflected in poor labor outcomes and high poverty rates. Indigenous peoples and African descendants achieve lower levels of education in their lifetime. In recent decades, the region has narrowed the years-of-education gap between the indigenous peoples and the non-indigenous population, but the differences are still large.
The labor force participation of women in Latin America and the Caribbean is low, and the regions gender gap is one of the widest in the world. Although important progress has been made over the last 50 years (with womens participation rate going from around 20% in the 1960s to more than 60% toward the beginning of the 2010s), the pace of growth slowed down in the early 2000s. Once they enter the labor market, women tend to be employed in lower-paying and lower-quality jobs compared to men. This is due to occupational and educational segregation.
Last week saw the release of new data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), implemented by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Fifteen-year-old students from fourteen Latin American and Caribbean countries participated in this international large-scale student assessment, which was postponed by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
What a Pan-American Highway for Digital Health would enable is that, if a person from El Salvador travels to Jamaica and experiences a health complication, their doctors could access their medical history and learn, for example, that the person is allergic to penicillin, among other relevant health data. This Pan-American Highway for Digital Health is possible, and the countries in the region are consolidating it.
Eliminating the gender pay gap for equal work is one of the targets of Sustainable Development Goal 8. In 2019, to drive action toward its achievement, the United Nations General Assembly declared September 18 International Equal Pay Day. While eliminating the wage gap is an aspiration with which we all agree, it is one of the most difficult labor market outcomes to achieve.
Current insurance schemes for the self-employed in Latin America are, in general, adaptations of the model created for salaried employees. These mechanisms need to respond better to their needs and characteristics to reflect better levels of insurance. The optimization of the schemes can be an optimal way to improve this situation. This document illustrates the path self-employed workers must follow to access and contribute to social security in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru.