Inclusive social development: The next generation of policies for overcoming poverty and reducing inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean

Inclusive social development: the next generation of policies for overcoming poverty...
coincides symbolically with the twentieth anniversary of the World Summit for Social Development, held in Copenhagen
in 1995. As reaffirmed in ECLAC resolution 682 (XXXV), the Copenhagen Declaration on Social Development, the
Programme of Action of the World Summit for Social Development, together with other relevant internationally agreed
instruments, constitute the basic framework for promoting social development for all at the national and international
levels. It was decided at the Summit that the United Nations regional commissions would assist in implementing the
outcome of the Summit and, in accordance with this mandate, ECLAC prepared two follow-up documents. 1
The provisions of the Copenhagen Declaration on Social Development are particularly pertinent today. The
Declaration contains 10 commitments, which include eradicating poverty; achieving full employment; ensuring
gender equality; promoting access for all to education; fostering social integration; and increasing resources allocated
to and strengthening cooperation for social development. The Programme of Action of the World Summit for Social
Development focuses on three main areas: the eradication of poverty; the creation of employment and social integration.
The measures set out in the Programme of Action concern mainly public policies and programmes, reflecting the
view that responsibility for social development lies principally with the State. Moreover, participation is treated as
essential to achieving those aims. In its resolution 50/161, the General Assembly entrusted the Commission for Social
Development with the primary responsibility for follow-up and review of the implementation of the Summit outcome,
and requested it to monitor the implementation of the Programme of Action.
It is evident, then, that key elements of what is now termed “social development” have remained constant over
time. This includes the fundamental aim of improving living standards for all in larger freedom, on which successive
intergovernmental documents have agreed. There is also a broad consensus that social development encompasses a
wide variety of areas that international organizations must tackle, including education, health, employment, crime,
migration and human development in general. 2
This document, which marks a new stage in the cooperation between ECLAC and the countries of Latin America
and the Caribbean in the field of social development, is based on core elements of the development approach of ECLAC.
First, as was proposed in the equality trilogy, 3 Latin America and the Caribbean must shift its development paradigm
if it is to achieve equality and environmental sustainability in today’s complex and ever-changing socioeconomic
conditions. Equality is defined in the ECLAC approach as the overarching, long-term goal of development. Its central
importance to the concept of sustainable development was acknowledged by the World Commission on Environment
and Development in 1987 and reinforced over time in various international instruments, from the Rio Declaration on
Environment and Development (1992) to the outcome of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development,
entitled “The future we want” (2012). The environmental dimension of sustainable development is crucial to ensuring
the well-being of future generations and therefore intergenerational equality. 4
Second, the concept of equality is built on a rights-based approach, which is also essential to addressing and
eradicating poverty. ECLAC has been developing this approach since 2000, when it presented the document, Equity,
development and citizenship, at its twenty-eighth session, affirming that “defining the construction of more equitable
societies as the essential aim of development brings to the fore the importance of upholding the population’s
economic, social and cultural rights, which are based on the values of equality, solidarity and non-discrimination,
and underscores the universality, indivisibility and interdependence of these rights and of civil and political rights.” 5
The hallmarks of the Commission’s analysis and recommendations in this area are its promotion of the realization
of economic, social and cultural rights; an inclusive approach to development and well-being, which is needed to
create a sense of belonging in society; and social citizenship, through inclusive institutions that provide everyone
with the opportunity to participate in the benefits of collective life and in decision-making processes.
1
Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), The Equity Gap: Latin America, the Caribbean and the Social
Summit (LC/G.1954/Rev.1-P), Santiago, 1997; ECLAC, The equity gap: a second assessment (LC/G.2096), Santiago, 2000.
2
John Mathiason, “Renewing social development in the 21st century”, 2014 [online] http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/egms/docs/2014/
SessionIMathiasonRenewingSocialDevelopment.
3
ECLAC, Time for equality: closing gaps, opening trails (LC/G.2432(SES.33/3)), Santiago, 2010; Structural change for equality: an
integrated approach to development (LC/G.2524(SES.34/3)), Santiago, 2012; and Compacts for equality: towards a sustainable future
(LC/G.2586(SES.35/3)), Santiago, 2014.
4
ECLAC, Preliminary reflections on Latin America and the Caribbean in the post-2015 development agenda based on the trilogy of
equality (LC/L.3843), Santiago, 2014.
5
ECLAC, Equity, development and citizenship (LC/G.2071(SES.28/3)), Santiago, 2000, p. 12.
Introduction
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