XV Ibero-American Conference of Ministers of Health in Cartagena de Indias. Secretaria General Iberoamericana. All rights reserved.
Francesc Badia i Dalmases: Latin America is experiencing a cycle of political change after more than a decade of economic growth and social and political progress that has also resulted in improvements with regard to issues affecting health. Are there reasons to keep on being optimistic?
Leire Pajín: I think that in recent years the region has offered a number of good news. One has to do, quite obviously, with economic growth and social inclusion. The latest United Nations Development Program’s (PNUD) Human Development Index for Latin America and the Caribbean show that it is the world region where poverty and inequality has been reduced the most in comparative terms. The good news is that economic growth has helped to diminish poverty and inequality. The bad news, however, is that inequality is still the great challenge of Latin America, for we have not managed to break unequal access to services and the most basic rights. A minority of the population still concentrates a very disproportionate share of total wealth to the detriment of a vast majority who has no access to minimum resources. The challenge now, and the PNUD Index makes it very clear, is not to lose what has been gained in recent years. In this cycle of economic slowdown the region is currently going through, those who have escaped poverty, and even the lower middle class, are very vulnerable and can easily fall back into exclusion and total poverty.
