Publication

The main objective of this paper is to provide a list of key factors that are essential to an efficient development agenda for Latin America. The author analyzes diverse aspects of poverty, social development, and sustainability in the region and emphasizes that although progress has been made in some of these aspects in recent years, the pending challenges are daunting with the most crucial issues being poverty and social inequality. He argues that the region requires an agenda dedicated to more intense efforts at eliminating the accumulated social deficit, both as a prerequisite for making full use of available human resources and as a precondition for strengthening institutions and providing them with legitimacy. Considering the environmental degradation of many Latin American countries, this agenda must also intensify its focus on environmental sustainability.