HAVANA, Cuba (CMC) — The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) says it will present a new institutional document with its development proposal for the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC).

ECLAC said the document, which examines the social gaps and lags that Latin American and Caribbean countries suffer, will be released during its five-day 37th biennial meeting that ends on Friday.

It said that the “gaps” have a negative impact on productivity, fiscal policy, environmental sustainability and the spread of the knowledge society. I

“In other words, inequality is inefficient, it is an impediment to growth, development and sustainability,,” it said, noting that the study entitled “The Inefficiency of Inequality” emphasises that pro-equality policies not only produce positive effects in terms of social well-being but also help create an economic system that is propitious for learning, innovation, higher productivity and environmental protection.

In the document, ECLAC insists on the need to move toward a new development pattern that allows for achieving a virtuous circle between growth, equality and sustainability for present and future generations, without leaving anyone behind – as set forth in the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), approved by the United Nations in 2015.

Since 2010, ECLAC has positioned equality as a foundational value and non-negotiable ethical principle based on a rights perspective, putting it at the centre of development, which is in keeping with this topic’s growing relevance in citizen demands and policy debates.

Now, with The Inefficiency of Inequality, the United Nations regional commission reaffirms that the region needs to foster an environmental big push as the strategic pillar of industrial and technological policy, the creation of public goods and services, the transition toward less segregated territories and cities, advancement toward the digital economy, and a change in the energy matrix.

“The political economy of highly unequal societies and the culture of privilege are obstacles to progress in development with equality. The region still bears the colonial vestiges of a culture of privilege that normalises social hierarchies and highly unequal access to the fruits of progress, political participation and production assets. We must consolidate a culture of equal rights, which is the direct opposite of the culture of privilege,” Alicia Bárcena, ECLAC’s Executive Secretary, wrote in the document’s foreword.

Equality, productivity and democracy are complementary strategic goods (and one cannot be substituted for another), even more so in a world such as ours today that is experiencing sharp economic, political and environmental tensions, she added.

The document indicates that equality is efficient because it creates inclusive institutions and a culture that rewards innovation and effort, and not economic actors’ social class, ethnicity, gender or political connections.

In addition, it enables access to capacities and opportunities on equal footing, in a context of technological revolution; strengthens democracies, which are those that provide more of the public goods and positive externalities that technical change requires, economic and political stability, and care for the environment; and, in the global economy, it helps expand aggregate demand and reduce the intensity of domestic and external conflicts by promoting development.

In its study, ECLAC presents figures and indicators that reveal the current international context, characterised by inequality, the technological revolution, external vulnerability, weakened employment and economic instability resulting from excess financialisation.

For example, it indicates that Latin America and the Caribbean is the world’s most unequal region, with an average Gini coefficient of 0.5 compared with 0.45 for Sub-Saharan Africa, 0.4 for East Asia and the Pacific, and 0.3 for the countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

In addition, it is estimated that tax evasion in the region amounts to 6.7 per cent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in terms of income tax and the value-added tax alone, while in the social arena gaps in access to education, the high rate of teenage motherhood, and ethnic-racial discrimination continue to perpetuate inequalities.