Bastobota without reality chara

The last two decades have been characterized by a set of changes that have modified the global political, economic, and social context of Latin American countries. In the early 1980s, the implementation of the so-called neoliberal economic model in the countries of the region totally changed the conception of “the rural” without prioritizing the role of rural areas in national economic development processes. The rural economy and small communities have been viewed mainly as the suppliers of labour for urban economic activity, with the consequent permanent migration of rural workers to work in urban areas or seasonal agro-export activities, leading to the gradual disappearance of small-scale rural agriculture.

In rural areas of Latin America and the Caribbean, poverty and extreme poverty are multidimensional phenomena influenced by cultural, social, and economic factors and characterized by:

social and economic exclusion and discrimination linked to ethnicity and gender;
lack of access or limited access to services to meet the basic needs of rural families (health, education, housing, and others); and
income levels below the minimum amount needed to obtain a basic set of goods and services, including food, for the family

Structural poverty (or “hard” poverty) is found mainly among indigenous communities and groups, rural women, and other ethnic minorities living in rural areas of the region. Those affected by this type of poverty generally have little or no schooling, few or no productive resources, limited knowledge about production, few work skills, and lack of access to basic and rural productive services. The term transitory poverty applies to families of small farmers and rural inhabitants without land, of both sexes, who are especially vulnerable to changes resulting from structural reform processes, cyclical internal and external economic crises, and social and political instability. These types of poor people generally own or have access to small plots of land, they have some degree of market involvement, and their incomes hover around the poverty line.

Sudden changes in economic policy or the occurrence of crises affect both farm and non-farm incomes of families in this group, causing periodic declines in their earnings and living conditions. Favorable economic conditions create a climate in which they can improve their incomes and living conditions, but ultimately the transitory poor lack sufficient productive goods and resources to enable them to stabilize their family incomes during periods of economic downturn. In the case of the structural poor, the lack of job skills limits their ability to find stable employment, increasing their dependence on agricultural activities for their income and subsistence. As for the transitory poor, their level of non-farm income is often far greater than their farm income.

More than 90% of the rural poor population of Latin America and the Caribbean is concentrated in four major ecological areas: (i) mountain slopes in subtropical zones (ii) humid and semi humid tropics; (iii) subtropical valleys; and (iv) coastal plains.

Causes of poverty:
A. Historical roots of rural poverty
B. Political instability
Coups d’état, civil wars, and military governments have been a permanent fixture in the political history of most of the countries. This political instability has been exacerbated by poor public administration and the corruption of the dominant political class, which inherited control over the wealth and benefits previously held by the colonial elite. History of limited and imperfect democracy.

C. Macroeconomic models and development policies
The result was the creation in most of the countries of agricultural and industrial sectors that were strongly protected and dependent on government support policies. Because the financial resources needed to apply these policies were beyond the capacity of the countries, the governments negotiated loans with international financial institutions and the international private banking system, thus triggering the spiral of debt in the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean and ushering in what came to be called the “lost decade.” During this period, many of the countries were controlled by military governments which added the cost of arms purchases to current public expenditure.

D. Less access to land
E. Insufficient investment in human and social capital
F. Insufficient development support services
G. gender issues, and ethnic issues in rural areas

Solutions:
 Access to land and property rights
 Eliminating gender inequalities in rural areas
 Developing and strengthening local social capital
 Competitiveness and globalization of markets
 Developing technology for small farmers and small rural businesses
 Supplying effective technical assistance services
 Innovative local financial services
 Supporting small rural businesses
 Development and regulation of rural labour markets
 Market competitiveness for farm and non-farm production
 Management and conservation of natural resource


(2004)