Employmentweb_low

EmploymEnT, woRk, and hEalTh inEqualiTiEs - a global perspective
The Venezuelan government is implementing other social policies
through programs known as "social missions." These separately financed
programs aim to improve social cohesion and extend social rights (in
areas such as health, education, work, and housing) to the whole
population, and employ broad-based strategies that include central
government, local government and community organisations. Thus
whereas the ordinary budget for health rose from 1.46 per cent of the gDp
in 1999 to 1.85 per cent in 2005, the program known as "misión Barrio
adentro", whose objective is to achieve 100 per cent coverage of integrated
health care, accounted for an expenditure corresponding to 2.78 per cent
of the gDp. as a result, in its first two years of operation (2004 and 2005)
there was an almost fourfold rise in visits to the primary health care
network, which has 8,500 new neighborhood-based centers throughout
the country. This new network of services gives priority to health
promotion and preventive practices. By 2005 the infant mortality rate had
been reduced to 15.5 per 1000 live births. another set of social missions
have notably improved access to drinking water, food and education.
Venezuelan social policies are now oriented towards structural change,
and are moving towards socialising the means of production. Workers are
encouraged to organise into cooperatives and co-managed enterprises. It
has been shown that one of the causes of poverty is inequality in the access
to assets (such as land, machinery, and technology) and in access to credit
(Kliksberg, 1999), and consequently Venezuela pursues mechanisms for
transferring assets to the hands of organised workers, such as firms in
which the workers hold shares on equal terms with the state. In the case
of cooperatives, the assets are owned collectively, with the state
transferring them either directly or by means of loans. In 2004 a social
mission called "Vuelvan Caras", was set up to train, organise and activate
collectively-owned production units. The units were not only aided and
advised by the program, but also provided with the resources necessary to
begin production, according to their community needs.
"misión madres del Barrio" is a new program that joins other
governmental efforts in the fight against poverty and social exclusion. It
recognises the value of work in the home, providing complete care to
women and families in situations of extreme poverty, with the aim of
guaranteeing access to fundamental rights: assignment of 60 per cent to
80 per cent of the minimum wage for mothers in situations of extreme
poverty, training and financial support for development of productive work,
organisation of neighborhood-level mothers' committees, integral care of
health needs, housing, food and education (ministerio del poder popular
para el Trabajo y seguridad social).
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