SANTIAGO, Chile (CMC) — The Executive Secretary of the United Nation’s Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Alicia Bárcena, says the hallmark of equality and its key impact on the development process of countries in the region and on human progress distinguish the legacy of over the last decade. 

“The issue we are presenting today is the result of a generous invitation that we interpret as sincere recognition of the work and substantial contribution to the regional debate on development and equality that we have been undertaking throughout this last decade,” said Bárcena in addressing a special edition of the journal El Trimestre Económico, dedicated to analysing ECLAC over the last 10 years.

“This special issue is about the central role of equality in consolidating a development style that combines economic growth, social inclusion and environmental sustainability — areas that ECLAC has been studying in depth since 2010,” she added. 

ECLAC said El Trimestre Económico, published by Fondo de Cultura Económico, is the longest-standing economic analysis journal in the area of social sciences in the region and one of the most prestigious flagship publications on development traditions in the region, as well. 

The latest issue includes a prologue by Bárcena and presents a compilation of 11 essays on ECLAC’s intellectual production over the last decade. 

The special issue was presented in an event held in a hybrid format that included the participation of Bárcena, as well as that of José Gabriel Palma, professor at the University of Cambridge Economics Faculty, and José Valenzuela, member of the El Trimestre Económico Board of Trustees. 

During her address, Bárcena noted that although Latin America and the Caribbean is not the world’s poorest region, “it does suffer from the greatest inequality”.

She also stated that inequality gives rise to “a culture of privilege that restricts access and opportunities, and distorts public policy. 

“Inequality defines our region; it is unjust, inefficient, and conspires against sustainable development. Equality is not just about entitlement to rights,” Bárcena said. “Equality is necessary for growth, and growth for equality.” 

The United Nations senior official also cautioned that “we are no longer in a period of change but rather in a true change of period”. 

“This means we must rethink development and place equality at the centre,” she said. “To achieve that, we need social compacts.” 

Bárcena also discussed what she described as “the deep asymmetries between developed and developing countries, which have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic”.

As an example, she noted that Latin America and the Caribbean produces only 8.3 per cent of greenhouse gases worldwide but is highly vulnerable to climate change. 

“There is tremendous asymmetry, and we have forgotten the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities,” the ECLAC chief said. “We must take positions because the evidence shows that these asymmetries are unacceptable and that developed countries have a historical debt to developing countries.” 

She also highlighted the urgency of recovering the role of the State, “which is essential to regulating relationships between the market, the State, and society,” and to implement transformative structural policies.

Bárcena also urged progress toward “solid and united multilaterialism in the face of nationalist and regionalist drift, and the elusiveness of regional integration”. 

She said the articles included in the special issue of the journal “fulfil the goal of describing, in most cases from first-hand experience, the most significant milestones in the creation of ECLAC’s ideals: forward-looking ideals for our region that aim to overcome structural obstacles that have slowed deep democratic advancement and material and cultural progress in Latin America and the Caribbean”. 

“The ECLAC I have directed has established and made available to our people an indelible legacy that places emphasis on the dignity of its inhabitants; that is, on the possibility of exercising with the utmost freedom their entitlement to rights,” Bárcena said.