Declaration of the Latin American Reflection Roundtable Social development and hemispheric financing: the urgency of a new momentum.
The Latin American Reflection Roundtable is a network where analysis and proposals by personalities linked to foreign policy-making and academia. Its purpose is to identify the best opportunities and actions for intra-regional dialogue, as well as for Latin America relations worldwide. The following in its latest statement.
Recently, the President of the United States, Joe Biden has announced the purpose of running for re-election. In doing so, he asks his country´s voters for another chance to “finish the job.” And he puts on the table a series of policies from which the United States has managed to reactivate its economy and advance in certain social policies. Beyond the invasion and war in Ukraine, the international scenario, with its lights and shadows, calls for a new system of coexistence with new rules where human development and environmental sustainability are at the center of the determinants. With Latin America, in many ways, the implementation of a new continental pact is urgent: in this case, more than a work to be finished, it is a work to begin with.
With the corresponding serenity, it can be said that the Summit of the Americas ratified two facts that call for further rectification: on the one hand, a fragmented Latin America and the Caribbean devoid of essential coincidences to advance in the face of the realities of the 21st century; on the other, a United States without major proposals from which to promote a hemispheric strategy capable of building from diversity. The responsibility for this lack lies on both sides, and a solid and convening agenda calls for medium- and long-term actions based on current reality. For this, it is urgent to move towards a serious political dialogue between the United States and Latin America, having as the backbone an action plan with a strong commitment to social development and climate change together with the protection of biodiversity. The primacy of the geopolitical agenda that Washington promotes globally is dysfunctional for the region and, even, for the United States, since, in essence, it denies the enormous and profound social challenges that equally affect all of America.
Today the data is eloquent. If the pandemic is being left behind, the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean confirm that the region is not able to recover the march. Our countries have been exposed to an unstable diplomatic, military, and global economic scenario marked by a combination of successive crises, in particular, because of the war in Ukraine and its harmful global consequences. Institutions such as ECLAC show this accurately. There is a slowdown in economic growth, there is a slow generation of formal employment while the informal one multiplies and the difficulties of advancing towards decent work are increasing. Inflation hits hard in most countries, with an increase in the price of food and energy, while there are significant falls in investment. There is a slowdown in the economic growth, there is a slow generation of formal employment while the informal one multiplies and the difficulties of advancing towards decent work are increasing. Inflation hits hard in most countries, with higher prices of food and energy, while there are significant falls in investment. The impact hits hard not only the lowest and most vulnerable quintiles of the population but also the increasingly unprotected middle sectors. All this while the climate crisis brings unknown disasters in geography, daily life, and economic production. In this context, financial institutions for development must enter an “urgency mode” because if inaction prevails, the consequences will be more instability in the political, material, and social spheres.
In our region, the work of CAF, the Development Bank of Latin America, shows an important advance in its capitalization and in a long-term perspective. This was demonstrated recently in Denver, United States, when presenting his plans for the future of life in the cities of Latin America and the Caribbean. If current demographic trends continue, in another 25 years, 86% of the region´s population will live in cities. Or, in other words, nine out of ten Latin Americans will reside in urban settlements.
It is necessary to act with responses to the immediate and with appropriate policies based on the future. The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) should join this effort of Latin American countries, strengthened in its ability to respond financially to a pressing social, economic and environmental agenda throughout the region. For that, the recapitalization of the IDB is necessary, together with the improvement in the effectiveness of its credits. However, the bill presented in March 2021 giving authority to the US representative at the IDB to vote in favor of that recapitalization, has so far not found support from the US authorities.
For this reason, we value certain recent declarations that call for moving from words to actions. The National Security Adviser, Jack Sullivan, in an important speech where he announced the new government strategy–the one that Biden should promote if he wins his second term–indicated the purpose of mobilizing billions in investments in emerging economies, “with solutions for these countries to develop on their own, but with capital made possible by a different kind of American diplomacy.”
In this sense, he proposed that the multilateral Development Banks respond to contemporary challenges and update their business models, “especially the World Bank, but also the regional Development Banks.” In this framework, opening to the recapitalization of the IDB would be a positive step to demonstrate the will of the United States to have a new, broader, and more diverse policy with the rest of the continent, based on a mutual maturity typical of the 21st century. Doing so cannot be postponed because there is no longer room for the old theories on which the inter-American relationship was based in the past. The opportunity for this dialogue, consistent with global changes, is seen as possible from South America; now the will to promote it must come from the North.
Sign on behalf of the Latin American Reflection Roundtable:
Altmann, Josette. Secretaria General FLACSO. Costa Rica.
Bergamino, Ariel. Ex Vice Ministro de RR.EE. Uruguay
Borda, Sandra. Docente. Universidad de los Andes. Colombia.
Bordón, José Octavio. Presidente CARI. Ex Senador y ex Embajador. Argentina.
Caetano, Gerardo. UDELAR. Montevideo. Uruguay.
Cordera Campos, Rolando. Profesor Emérito. Coordinador. PUED. UNAM. México
De La Puente, Juan. Docente. Universidad San Martín de Porres. Perú.
Fernández, Gustavo. Ex Canciller de Bolivia.
García Sayán, Diego. Ex – Canciller Perú.
García, Enrique. Ex Presidente Corporación Andina de Fomento. Bolivia.
Gaspar, Gabriel. Ex vice Ministro Defensa. Chile.
González, Guadalupe. Docente. Colegio de México
Gutiérrez, Edgar. Ex Canciller de Guatemala.
Hirst, Mónica. Profesora. UTDT. IESP-UERJ. Brasil.
Insulza, José Miguel. Ex Secretario General OEA. Chile.
Jaramillo Sandra. Ex Canciller. Ecuador.
Jarquín, Edmundo. Ex candidato presidencial. Nicaragua.
Lustig, Nora. Profesora. Universidad de Tulane.
Letelier, Juan Pablo. Ex Senador. Chile
Ocampo, José Antonio. Ex Secretario General CEPAL. Ex Ministro Hacienda. Colombia.
Pachano, Simón. Profesor. Investigador. FLACSO. Ecuador.
Paredes, Beatriz. Senadora. México.
Reyes Matta, Fernando. Académico. Universidad Andrés Bello. Chile.
Rico, Víctor, ex Vice Ministro Relaciones Exteriores. Bolivia
Romero, Carlos. Profesor. Universidad Central. Venezuela.
Russell, Roberto. Docente. Universidad Torcuato Di Tella. Argentina
Somavía, Juan. Ex Director General OIT. Chile.
Tokatlián, Juan Gabriel. Vicerrector. Universidad Torcuato Di Tella. Argentina
Wagner, Allan. Ex Canciller. Perú.
Marcos Cordeiro. Académico. Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP)
Ignacio Bartesaghi. Académico. Universidad Católica del Uruguay.