Ensuring that our region is in a post-pandemic, thus, absolutely, is somewhat inaccurate, although there are already departures and improvements.
What is not in any way inaccurate is to underline the asymmetries that have marked us during this painful stage, in its most critical moments and also now, when very gradually and also in a disparate way for the different countries of the area and the world, it begins to see a light at the end of the tunnel.
Last week the Eighteenth Meeting of the Regional Planning Council (CRP) of the Latin American and Caribbean Institute for Economic and Social Planning (ILPES) took place, and in the context of that meeting, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC ) presented the document “Resilient institutions for a transformative post-pandemic recovery in Latin America and the Caribbean: contributions for the discussion”.
In this text it is clear that “we live in moments of great uncertainty, in which it is still not clear whether the inertial trend will focus on returning to a development style that we already warned is unsustainable, or if, on the contrary, we will be able to make the leap towards a society that recognizes and embraces the links between human well-being and that of ecosystems ”.
It so happens that COVID-19 has shown – as effectively as the “coronabicho” has been in its invasion – the fragility of Latin American societies, and, at the same time, exacerbated the serious inequalities that exist in these countries and between them.
At the same time, he has marked in a red circle something in which Cuba had and has the best compass: the importance of relying on science to make decisions. Not only referring to public health, but also those that allow the transformation of production, distribution and consumption patterns, whose sustainability in Latin America has been well questioned.
ECLAC now proposes that “post-pandemic recovery should be an opportunity to transform the region’s development model into a sustainable model, with equality and the dignity of people at the center.”
To make this hope-proposal concrete, political will and the role of the States are essential.
This is how I had already highlighted the Executive Secretary of ECLAC itself, Alicia Bárcena, in the dialogue of the UN Regional Commissions with the Second Committee of the United Nations General Assembly.
On that occasion, which also took place this October, Bárcena exemplified how “while the United States and Europe allocate billions of dollars and euros to fiscal packages for the recovery that reach about 18% of GDP, the fiscal plans announced in Latin America and the Caribbean have only reached 4.3% of GDP (January-June 2021) ”.
Also in the field of contrasts, he recalled that Latin America and the Caribbean will not be able to vaccinate 70% of its population in 2021, while the acquisitions of these immunogens by some countries exceed their vaccination needs.
Ours is the region of the developing world most affected by the crisis and also the most indebted.
“Developed countries could channel the new Special Drawing Rights (SDR or SDR) that they will not use. A new trust fund is needed to support middle-income countries. SDRs could also capitalize development banks ”, suggested the senior official.
There are several alternatives and the doors to be crossed through Latin America and the Caribbean, now that we are entering a new stage, at least in epidemiological terms.
Hopefully these dark times have allowed the world to reflect enough so that what is to come is illuminated at a global and regional level with the Martian lights of human improvement, with those of a more dignified life and also more responsible with the planet we inhabit.
