The Development Bank of Latin America (CAF) presented its “Economy and Development Report of CAF” entitled “Inherited Inequalities: The Role of Skills, Employment, and Wealth in the Opportunities of New Generations” yesterday. The multilateral identified human capital formation, obtaining employment, and accumulating assets as keys to reducing inequalities.
The report provides a diagnosis and recommendations to promote social mobility in Latin America and the Caribbean with a series of policies and initiatives that can be adapted to each local context. According to the report, the lack of opportunities to build human capital, obtain good jobs in labor markets, and accumulate assets are key factors behind the intergenerational reproduction of inequalities.
This was one of the central themes addressed during the RED 2022 event between CAF representation in El Salvador and the Ministry of Finance (MH).
“Since our incorporation, this is our first event with CAF. We are working on the needs of El Salvador and Central America, the report being presented today provides a very detailed view of the region, and we are committed to ending these inequalities and learning how to eliminate them effectively,” said Minister of Finance Alejandro Zelaya.
Meanwhile, the CAF representative in El Salvador, Oscar Avalle, emphasized that the multilateral’s vision in El Salvador is to support strategic areas such as education and social inclusion to overcome persisting inequalities and those that have been aggravated by recent global phenomena such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The problem of inequality has multiple facets, so both in El Salvador and the rest of the region, we must persist in supporting strategic areas such as education and social inclusion,” he asserted.
In this regard, the report suggests that active employment policies, such as job training programs and internships for adults, reduce productivity gaps among workers and generate valuable information for the job search process. It also emphasizes, among several suggestions, that job boards and assistance programs for finding work are useful in reducing informational asymmetries by equalizing knowledge about job opportunities.