The COVID-19 pandemic exposed and exacerbated the structural vulnerabilities of Latin American states, including high inequality and informality. With just 8 percent of the world’s population the region had, by the end of 2021, reported almost 30 percent of the world’s COVID deaths. Latin America and the Caribbean also experienced the most severe economic crisis of any region, with a seven percent GDP contraction in 2020 and a lower expected recovery than in other regions. In this context, social policies played a crucial intermediary role between the health and economic effects and households’ ability to cope. A demographic that has taken a particular hit are children, with an over 50% poverty rate amid the longest school closures of any region in the world. Meanwhile, democratic stability is strained in many countries that are coping with severe social and political fragmentation.
This two-day conference, hosted by GIGA-ILAS and the EU-LAC Foundation, will assess some of the key policy challenges that countries in the region confront, what they can do about them to promote an inclusive and sustainable recovery, and what insights scholars from political science, sociology, economics, and health sciences can bring to the conversation. We will address some of the enduring challenges that countries in the region confront as they recover, including gaps in social protections and labor informality, education and health, fiscal space, state capacity and high levels of violence, and migration. We will also address democratic stability; the rise of new political actors; populism; the politicization of the judiciary and the judicialization of politics; climate change policies; and finally, what all this means for multilateralism and EU-LAC relations.
The goal will be to draw on the empirical knowledge base of the scholars to assess future trends, and to provide actionable policy proposals. The format will be focused thematic panel discussions with moderator questions, followed by open debate.
Participation is by personal invitation only.