Ethics and Development

INTER-AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK

Inter-American Initiative on Social Capital, Ethics and Development

     August 21, 2003                                                                                                                                          www.iadb.org/etica

 

“A community is not truly free while freedom is not rooted in its customs and identified with them”

- Mariano Jose de Larra

 


Comments? Suggestions?

alanw@iadb.org

 

Team

 

General Coordinator 

Bernardo Kliksberg 

 

Deputy General Coodinator  

Liliana Basile


Editor-Chief

Alan Wagenberg 

 

Research

  Mariana Pargana


Translation

  Agustina Fraquelli 


Editors

 Gabriel Mops

Maria Loreto Torres

 

Systems

Francisco Gallo

Disclaimer


INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR 
MOBILIZING THE SOCIAL CAPITAL OF PARAGUAY AND LATIN AMERICA 
Asuncion, Paraguay, October 9 and 10, 2003. 

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) is organizing a call for papers for this Seminar. Papers should be on experiences on the role of social capital in Paraguay and Latin America. The contest is open to the general public. Selected works will have the opportunity to be presented in one of the workshops of the Seminar. More information about the contest, agenda and registration form can be found at: http://www.iadb.org/etica

INITIATIVE'S NEW SERVICES

Books to Read. 
Introducing a new section in our website containing book reviews relevant to the ethical challenges of development and the social capital mobilization. Among the books reviewed: "Global Civil Society- Dimensions of the Non-Profit Sector" by Lester Salomon and "The World Poverty and Human Rights" by Thomas Pogge. You may access this service at: http://www.iadb.org/Etica/sp4321/DocLibros.cfm?Tipo=Libro+para+Leer&SortBy=Autores.PrimerApellido

COLLECTION OF ABSTRACTS: WHAT'S HAPPENING IN THE TECHNOLOGICAL FRONT ON SOCIAL CAPITAL AND ETHICS FOR DEVELOPMENT?

"The Violence and Social Capital in Poor Urban Communities. Colombia and Guatemala Perspectives" by Cathy McIlwaine and Caroline O. N. Moser 
By using empiric data of 18 poor urban communities in Colombia and Guatemala, Mcllwaine and Moser studied the existing connection between violence and social capital. Violence is defined, in this study, as "a usage of violent actions motivated by aware or unaware desire to maintain and/or obtain political, economical or social power". On the one hand, Mcllwaine and Moser establish the necessity to develop a definition more precise of social capital, and, on the other hand, they explore the potential starting points to define the role of social capital in the reduction of violence and conflict resolution.
http://www.iadb.org/etica/sp4321/DocHit.cfm?DocIndex=912

RECOMMENDED ARTICLE

"In Latin America, Children Suffer the Most" by Bernardo Kliksberg. 
Newspaper Clarín, Argentina, August 8, 2003. 
This article, attached to the end of this edition, exposes us to the urgent situation of poor children in Latin America.

NEWS

IDB Promotes Corporate Social Responsibility in Latin America. 
The Multilateral Investment Fund of the Inter-American Development Bank announced today the approval of a $ 1.1 million grant to Fundación Acción Empresarial for a program to promote Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) intended to help improve private sector competitiveness in several countries of Latin America. http://www.iadb.org/NEWS/Display/PRView.cfm?PR_Num=146_03&Language=English

Development and the Indigenous Population. 
This cross-topic special highlights the effects of globalization on indigenous peoples. It coincides with the meeting of the UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations in Geneva from July 21-25 where the issue is being discussed. Among the questions addressed here are: What is the impact of urban migration on indigenous peoples? What is the impact of HIV/AIDS? What is the role of NGOs? How can indigenous languages and cultures be preserved? How are indigenous youth coping with change? The voices of indigenous people can also be heard in this special, as leaders emerge to chart courses for their own people. http://www.developmentgateway.org/topics/indigenous-peoples

OPPORTUNITIES

Fellowships for the International Seminar "Social Capital, Generating a Better World". 
Porto Alegre, Brazil, September 10 through 13, 2003. 
A total of 400 fellowships will be offered for the Seminar. The fellowship will cover the registration fee and meals. The fellowships will be given to the first 400 people registered through the website of the Inter-American Initiative on Social Capital, Ethics and Development of IDB (http://www.iadb.org/etica).

Course "Program of Governance Political Management". 
Ecuador, Guayaquil, September 5, 2003 through February 26, 2004. 
This program is designed for leaders responsible for political organizations, NGOs and private companies. The program has the support of the Universidad Catolica de Santiago de Guayaquil, George Washington University and the Corporacion Andina de Fomento. For more information, please write to Olilia Carlier at: ocarlierr@yahoo.com

Summer Course "University and Cooperation: A Challenging Debate". 
Autonomous University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain, September 11 through 13, 2003 This course is designed to establish an agreement and reflection of all actors favoring the debate about the university cooperation, analyzing all angles and perspectives, and developing a series of conclusions to guide and define the role and future challenges of the university in the cooperation field. http://www.uam.es/cultura/cultura/cursosverano.html

CALENDAR

Course "Corporate Social Reconstruction: How to Reduce the Negative Effects in the Job". International Labor Organization, Turin, Italy, October 6 through 17, 2003. 
The objective of this program is to increase the knowledge to design and implement policies and strategies to help successful corporate reconstruction on social values. The course will be in English. For more information, please visit: http://www.itcilo.it

"V International Seminar about Social Community Service". 
Autonomous University of Nuevo Leon and Secretariat of Social Development, Monterrey, Mexico, September 23 through 25, 2003. 
The Seminar seeks to develop an integral model to optimize the social service in Mexico. Registration and presentation of experiences/works should be done online at: http://www.uanl.mx/eventos/dvss or sent to the organizing committee at: elnavarr@ccr.dsi.uanl.mx

LINKS OF INTEREST

Desafios 
Informative Bulletin of the Development Program of the United Nations in Argentina. http://www.undp.org.ar/boletines

Iko Poran - International Volunteering Programs 
Iko Poran is a response to the demand for better logistics in the reception, transportation and distribution of international volunteers. 
 http://www.ikoporan.org/1_1_1_1_ikoporan_eng.asp

For the Children
NGO that works in the fight against hunger for less privileged children in Argentina. 
http://www.porloschicos.com

SHARE WITH THE INITIATIVE

If you would like to share news and events in upcoming editions of Ethics and Development, please fill out the form at: http://www.iadb.org/etica/ingles/contac-i.htm. Please include contact information, website, and date of event.

LINK TO OTHER RELATED BULLETINS


http://www.iadb.org/etica/ingles/Vinculos-i.cfm#Boletines

PARTNERS

* BID Juventud * CLAD * Fundación Getulio Vargas * Government of France * Government of Norway * Institut Internacional de Governabilitat de Catalunya * IntraMed * La Sociedad Digital * OEA- IACD * PAHO * PRIGEPP * UN Volunteers *  U. Nacional de la Matanza *    U. de Oslo

 

In Latin America, Children Suffer Most

Bernardo Kliksberg, Economist, Chief of the Initiative on Social Capital, Ethics and Development (IDB).

Looking at the data, it is clear that children are suffering most in Latin America. Fifty-eight percent of children under five are poor, as are 57 percent of those 6 to 12 years old. On a continent with enormous capacity for producing food, 36 percent of children under two live under 'high nutritional risk'.

In Central America as in Argentina, children are dying of hunger. Something is wrong with the economy when, in a country like Argentina - the fifth largest producer of food in the world - one out of five children suffers malnutrition.

According to medical science, malnutrition in children under five years old can result in stunted intellectual development, acute respiratory diseases, and infectious diseases, and can also culminate - as has happened in Argentina - in death. In children 6 to 12 years old, malnutrition can cause rickets, stunted growth, and vulnerabilities or disturbances in the nervous system.

According to the Pan-American Health Organization, 190 thousand Latin American children die each year from preventable diseases linked to poverty (such as diarrhea and respiratory diseases).

No one disputes a child's right to education. Developed countries are ensuring that their children successfully complete preschool, elementary school and high school. In Latin America, only one in five children goes to preschool; while nearly all begin elementary school, 37 percent of adolescents 15 to 19 years old drop out of school, nearly half before finishing elementary school.

The extremely high rates of dropout and repetition are overwhelmingly concentrated within the poor population. Poor children have the same desire to study as everyone else, but cannot. Some drop out because of malnutrition, others, significantly, in order to work.

According to the ILO, 22 million children under 14 in the region work long hours. Given the exploitation and the working conditions that are detrimental to their health and education, this essentially amounts to 'forced servitude'. In Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador, over 20 percent of children ages 10 to 14 work (IDB 2002).

A third reason for the dropout rate among poor children is that many live in dysfunctional families as a consequence of their poverty. This is the basis for one of the major, 'silent' miseries in the daily life of Latin American children.

Emotional balance, affective and psychological development, the formation of values, the acquisition of a culture of preventive health, development of basic intellectual qualities - all depend on the family. This institution is decisive in life; while imperative for institutional and macroeconomic development, it is critically threatened by growing poverty in the region. The acute socioeconomic adjustments and prolonged unemployment place the family under extreme tension, often causing the family to implode and break apart. Normally, only the mother remains to head the family. Over 25 percent of Latin American homes are in this state.

In Argentina, the destruction of the family as a result of economic deterioration has also profoundly affected the middle class. Between 1990 and 2000, economic policies caused 7 million people (20 percent of the population) to fall into poverty from the middle class. Unemployment grew from 13 to 21 percent during the 1990s.

Where the family unit falls into domestic violence - which is rising in the region - the damage is extreme. A study by the IDB in Nicaragua shows that children from families with domestic violence are three times more likely to seek medical treatment, get hospitalized more frequently, and drop out of school, on average, at age nine.

Special attention should be paid to those often called, 'children of the streets' (niños de la calle) for they are the most extreme illustration that something is not right in our societies. Each day there are more. They can be seen living on the streets of Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paolo, Bogotá, and any other major cities in the region. They live in extreme poverty, with severely poor health, and under tremendous abuse. An IDB study in Honduras shows that 60 percent of the 20 thousand such children in Tegucigalpa suffer from depression, with 6 out of every 100 committing suicide. Thirteen hundred children and youths have been murdered there in the past four years, according to Casa Alianza, an NGO that represents these children.

Various international organizations have launched campaigns to stem the use of the term 'children of the street', calling it a misnomer as it seems to imply that they chose to live there. And this is not the case. As Father Cesare de la Rocca has said in Brazil: "There are no children of the streets, but rather children marginalized from the school system, the family, and the community." This shows that it is society as a whole that has not fulfilled its most basic functions.

True success

Probably the most important parameter for evaluating the success of an economy is not any conventional economic indicator, but rather what has been done for the children, how their undisputable rights - those provided by fundamental ethics as well as by democratic constitutions - are protected. Many Latin American countries are far from passing such a test.

It is time that the consensual discussions over children become translated into concrete actions. What is needed are public policies that truly take responsibility for guaranteeing all children their inalienable rights to nutrition, health, education and development, and for decisively protecting the family.

We are at a crossroads. Policy can proceed in one of two directions. Some, for example, offer a 'simple' solution to juvenile delinquency by lowering the age of impunity for incarceration. No advanced society in the world does this today. Efforts are focused rather on rehabilitation, because the proven effective ways of reducing juvenile delinquency rates are to strengthen the family, increase levels of education, and create job opportunities for youths (the current youth unemployment rate in Latin America is estimated at 20 percent).

Action is urgent. Future generations will judge Latin America most for what it has done for its people, and specifically for its children.