Fight Against Poverty and Democratic Governance in Latin America

Conference Dictated by Alejandro Toledo, ex- president of Peru.
Alejandro Toledo, ex-president of Peru dictated a conference in the FUNGLODE auditorium. The conference consisted of an exploration and confrontation of the main thesis formulated in the last years by the government, institutions and academia about the best strategies to eradicate poverty and strengthen governance.

During his speech, president Toledo
said that “a strategy of fighting against poverty that is pro-growth should better education, widen coverage in the secondary and third levels and encourage investment in infrastructure for the benefit of underdeveloped regions and also increment the access to the lower class for public services”.

He also spoke about the relationship between poverty and democratic governance in Latin America.  He stated that “the unsatisfied popular
demands go against institutional strengthening and any type of instability will push away any investments”.  “Also, poor countries, incapable of reducing the differences in income, face social tension, which also makes more difficult for a favorable commercial climate to reign”.

Toledo stated that while China experimented an 8.5 % annual per capita growth between 1981 and the year 2000, important factor in the reduction of poverty in
42 percentage points, the gross internal product in Latin America diminished in a 0.7% during the 80’s and grew to around a 1.5% in the 90’s, without generating any significant changes in the poverty levels.

“Any paradigm of development must include poverty in its model, with no exclusions of any nature”.  He quoted Guillermo Perry, head economist of the World Bank, by stating that “the fight against poverty is
not only for the poorest people, it’s also a positive step for all of society”.

The conference ended with a session for questions and answers.