Top United Nations experts on Latin America and the Caribbean have warned that global economic shocks could throw some 16 million people of the Americas into extreme poverty, threatening important gains toward achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the region.
Concluding a two-day meeting at the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the regional directors of 13 UN agencies promised joint action to ensure continued progress on the MDGs in the Americas over the next two years.
MDGs aim at sharply reducing or eliminating several social and economic ills by 2015. They were set by the world leaders at the Millennium summit at the United Nations.
"Latin America and the Caribbean have made real advances toward fulfilling the MDGs, particularly in areas like infant mortality, hunger and poverty reduction," said PAHO Director Mirta Roses Periago.
"But not all groups have benefited equally, and the new global developments are a real threat to our progress. We need to mobilize and coordinate development action among UN agencies and the region's governments to continue to fight poverty and promote sustainable and equitable development," Periago said.
Alicia Barcena, executive secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), said the region has already reduced the proportion of the population living in poverty (MDG-1) from 48 percent in 1990 to 35 percent in 2007, thanks to sustained economic growth over the past decade coupled with poverty reduction strategies.
