“MANIFESTO AGAINST POVERTY IN THE AMERICAS”

August 22, 2024 - Washington, DC

Thank you, Mr. Chair. It is an honor for the General Secretariat to present this document again, together with the delegations of Antigua and Barbuda and Colombia. Furthermore, I feel very satisfied and honored by the words and presentations already made by those who spoke before me on this subject. The fight against poverty and inequality is not an ideological question, but a question of principles that form the essence of the fundamental values that must govern human coexistence.

The fight against poverty will always face obstacles related to opportunity, convenience, interest, and political, economic, and social structures. These obstacles are constantly reproduced among us. We must overcome them together, strengthening the weakest links in the social chain, since a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Societies are networks of interactions between people, and if poverty and inequality exist, it is because we are in debt, because we have not done our job well. Poverty weakens people, makes them vulnerable and exposed to being oppressed by others, by social mechanisms, or by the inertia that sustains privileged interests. Poverty and inequality fragment the social fabric and transform our societies into what they should not be.

Its collateral effects, such as insecurity and migration, generate a long list of problems that we face today. More democracy and greater democratization are necessary to get out of these vicious circles. Living with poverty means living with broken and fragmented societies. We live in the most unequal region and one of the poorest in the world, but this should not be our identity. We are a region of peace, and this is our identity that we must consolidate day by day, with more rights for more people, since that is the basis of peace: equal access to all rights.

People in poverty should shame us as societies and institutions and challenge us about our aspirations and principles. There are no magic, simple, or immediate solutions in the fight against poverty, but we need solutions, and we need to start working on them. This fight involves policies and work aimed at combating poverty and its causes. We have seen countless brilliant speeches to eliminate poverty, but they remain only words, without policies or concrete actions to achieve them, which allows poverty to continue reproducing under the umbrella of the speech.

The solutions must be based on knowledge of the problem and on a guide of ethical principles that postulate a shared identity. Therefore, we appeal to leave aside dichotomous ideological discussions and build superordinate objectives that unite us in the fight against poverty. This manifesto arises as a proposal to characterize the problem and as an ethical reference to face it together, open to all, so that everyone can contribute. The manifesto against poverty characterizes the problem as multidimensional, complex, and localized. Every public policy must aim to reduce poverty and cut the circuits that reproduce it, whether they are health, housing, education, production stimulus, foreign trade, security, or macroeconomic policies.

This is not ideology. We have seen countries with alternating governments from the left, right, and center that achieve conditions of development and equality through the design, implementation, and execution of appropriate public policies.

We have also seen the same alternation, but with poorly designed and executed policies, which reproduce inequality and poverty. Without alternation, the situation is even worse, with a lack of freedoms and rights, there will always be oppressed and oppressors, and conditions of equality and equity will never be achieved. Sometimes, the lack of access to social, economic rights, and freedoms is imposed by an authoritarian government, and sometimes it is the product of social, political, and economic inertia.

We must address both causes. There are costs in countries that must be eliminated, starting with corruption. Addressing poverty is a multidimensional challenge, so solutions must address multiple dimensions: income, living conditions, access to education, employment, health, and public services, guaranteeing access to all human rights. We propose that governments work on a universal basket of goods and services that takes into account these multiple dimensions. It is necessary to recognize the interactions of people living in poverty in their immediate surroundings, especially with illicit and informal markets, which generate socialization processes that tend to reproduce poverty.

These vicious circles can become virtuous if the population in poverty acquires and develops capacities and reduces its vulnerabilities. Inclusive norms and institutions are needed that recognize the specificity of the territory and that include people in poverty in the design of policies that respond to their needs. This document was presented more than a year and a half ago, and I hoped that by then more initiatives would have emerged. I hope that now you will make it your own, not only to move forward, but to be proactive and take this issue forward.

We have continued working during this time and have received contributions from institutions such as CAF, CELAM and Jeffrey Sachs, among others. It is impossible to talk about this document without mentioning Óscar Gamboa, who has been a great promoter of it. We appreciate and value the suggestion of Antigua and Barbuda, and we hope that the Chair of the Permanent Council will assume the responsibility of creating a Working Group on the matter. I end by making the words of the manifesto my own, committing ourselves to design it comprehensively and to make it our own, with dignity as our banner, for more rights for more people.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.