Social Panorama of Latin America 2009

The 2009 edition of Social Panorama of Latin America links trends in poverty and income distribution with social protection systems, placing special emphasis on how these systems have responded to the social impacts of the current crisis and on medium- and long-term projections. It focuses in particular on the impact of public transfers, trends in social spending, the mechanisms by which social vulnerability is reproduced and changing intergenerational and gender relations. These changes pose significant challenges for the role played by the State, the market and families in jointly meeting needs related to the population's welfare.

The document is divided into two parts. Part 1 includes the usual chapter on poverty and income distribution in the region and a second chapter that examines these issues in greater depth through an analysis of social spending, monetary transfers and conditional cash transfer programmes. The third chapter examines poverty and social vulnerability in light of the crisis and post-crisis situation and analyses how the countries' social protection systems can mitigate these effects of the crisis. Part 2 focuses on the care economy. It includes a chapter on paid and unpaid work from a gender perspective, highlighting inequalities and outstanding debts in the sexual division of labour; a chapter that looks at population projections and trends and underscores the pressing short- and medium-term priorities for care work; and a final chapter on the policy implications of these transformations.