Guatemalan presidential candidates pledge to maintain conditional cash transfer and other social programmes

The next Guatemalan administration, to whichever political stripe it belongs (at the time of writing, the election was undecided, with a second round of voting to be held early in November), is likely to keep the social programmes instituted by the administration of outgoing president Alvaro Colom (pictured). Giving the programmes continuity and improving and expanding them is a key pledge of all 10 presidential candidates. Chief and most successful among the programmes, collectively known as Social Cohesion, is the cash transfer scheme called Mi Familia Progresa, which alone has accounted for almost half of the $900 million spent on Social Cohesion since its launch in 2008. The scheme, like similar programmes operating in other Latin American countries and elsewhere, provides poor families with children with a monthly cash payment of just under $40, conditional on school attendance and up-to-date medical check-ups and vaccinations. According to recent studies, the programme is showing results: ‘Immunization rates among children under two in the beneficiary households were up to 15 per cent higher than among children in other households,’ says a 2009-10 impact evaluation by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and Mexico's National Institute of Public Health (INSP). In addition, school enrolment rates were up to 5 per cent higher among children between the ages of 7 and 15 in the recipient group.

The study results and the unanimously favourable view of the programme in political circles notwithstanding, not everyone is an unqualified admirer. Higinio Pu Cach, of Mayan indigenous organization Wajxaquib' noj', told IPS News that he worried that the social programmes, especially Mi Familia Progresa and Bolsa Solidaria, could be held hostage by political interests and alleged that ‘sometimes the aid is only granted to those who belong to the governing party’. This allegation was echoed by Nineth Montenegro, of the leftist Encuentro por Guatemala party, who claims that the assistance ‘is given to the poor, but they are asked to campaign and they are extorted to vote for one party’.

Source
IPS News, 1 September 2011

Calls for greater cross-sector collaboration in the region

The diminution of resources and the growing sophistication of both corporate social responsibility practices and social organizations all point to the need for greater cooperation between the sectors working on social development. At a meeting in Bogota in July, Margareth Flórez (pictured), of Latin American CSR network RedEAmerica, said that the increasingly professional approach of companies to social responsibility on the one hand and the diminished flow of external funding (especially, in Latin America’s case, from the US and Spain) following the financial crisis on the other made it imperative to create what she called a ‘collective agenda’ between the sectors to address questions of ‘strategic interest for the country [Colombia]’. At the same meeting, Rodrigo Villar of Fundacion DIS also spoke of the need for stronger alliances between the business sector and civil society. CSR practices in Latin America had changed over the past 10 to 15 years, he argued. Nowadays, companies did not simply want to be donors, they wanted to participate in activities that had a positive impact on society and on the environment. CSOs, he said, should strive organizationally to make themselves into reliable allies for companies, while companies could play a convening role, bringing together groups and resources to enable the for-profit and non-profit sectors to work in tandem.

Andrés Thompson also called for greater cooperation between the sectors in the region. Speaking at the Latin American and Caribbean Regional ISTR meeting in Buenos Aires in July, Thompson, formerly of the Kellogg Foundation and now general coordinator of Street Football World in Brazil, said that in many parts of Latin America, governments were reclaiming the social agenda that had in recent times been the province of NGOs. These now needed to rethink their identity and to work in alliance with other sectors to achieve greater impact, he argued.

For more information
www.gestrategica.org/templates/listado_recursos.php?id_rec=666&id_cl=1
http://new.lasociedadcivil.org/softis/cv/62

Region sees uneven progress towards MDG on child health

While many countries in the so-called Southern Cone of Latin America have made significant progress in the area of child health, others have not – and even in the most advanced countries, progress remains uneven, with wide disparities within countries. The Argentine Paediatrics Society congress, held last month, heard that Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay have all made significant progress towards the achievement of MDG4 – to reduce the under-five mortality rate by two thirds between 1990 and 2015 – but in Bolivia and Paraguay, where poverty rates are still high, child health indicators remain poor. Infant mortality in Bolivia is 50 per 1,000 live births; only 50 per cent of children are up to date on their vaccinations, and 5 per cent of children under two have never been immunized. In Paraguay, meanwhile, where 35 per cent of the country’s 6.5 million people are poor and 19 per cent live in extreme poverty, infant mortality stands at 24 per 1,000 live births, and malnutrition affects 14 per cent of children. Other countries report success with some qualifications. In Brazil, infant mortality has plunged from 80 per 1,000 live births in 1983 to 19 per 1,000 today. Argentina's infant mortality rate is 12.1 per 1,000 live births, but that average conceals huge disparities. For example, in the north-east province of Formosa, the rate is 20.5 per 1,000, while it is only 8.5 per 1,000 in the city of Buenos Aires. In Uruguay, where infant mortality is the lowest in the region at 7.7 per 1,000 live births, one of the main problems is the heavy concentration of paediatricians in Montevideo, while there is a shortage in the rest of the country.

Source
IPS News, 17 September 2011

CIVICUS World Assembly draws lessons from Arab Spring for CSOs

This year’s CIVICUS World Assembly, held in Montreal in September, boasted a strong Latin American presence, with roughly 10 per cent of the 900 delegates coming from the region, and Anabel Cruz, the only former CIVICUS president from Latin America, among the speakers.

Sessions included one on the Rendir Cuentas (accountability) initiative informed by CIVICUS’ work on legitimacy, transparency and accountability in which six countries from the region (Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Perú, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay) took part, and one on the cohesion and coordination of international aid efforts in Latin American countries and their implications for the sustainability of the CSO sector in those countries.

Meanwhile, the CIVICUS Civil Society Index project has thrown up a number of challenges for civil society in Latin American countries. The results of the latest phase include those from Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Nicaragua, Uruguay and Venezuela, which fed into the report Closing Gaps: Citizens, organisations and dissociation. The report paints a picture of absence of connection in almost every kind of civil society relationship: between CSOs, governments and the private sector, which tend to be volatile and limited; between the various types of CSOs within the sector (between pressure groups and service providers, for example); and between CSOs and the citizens that they supposedly represent and serve. The report concludes that the growth of informal civil society activity highlighted by the ‘Arab Spring’ uprisings offers a new challenge and a new opportunity for CSOs, which they must embrace. A case in point of such an opportunity and challenge, which the report features, is the rejuvenated student movement in Chile, which, according to recent surveys, enjoys the support of 89 per cent of the population.

For more information
www.civicus.org

10,000 women for Brazil

Fundação Dom Cabral (FDC), one of the academic partners for Goldman Sachs’ 10,000 Women initiative, is recruiting women for its first 100-strong cohort of programme scholars in Rio de Janeiro. 10,000 Women is a five-year funding programme by Goldman Sachs to provide 10,000 underserved women around the world with a business and management education. It operates through a network of more than 75 academic and non-profit institutions. These partnerships help develop locally relevant coursework and improve the quality and capacity of business education worldwide. The women selected for the programme enrol in tailormade certificate programmes ranging from five weeks to six months. Topics covered include marketing, accounting, writing business plans and accessing capital. Students are offered mentoring and postgraduate support by partner institutions, local businesses and Goldman Sachs employees. To qualify for the programmne, women must be Brazilian nationals or residents, unable to afford the programme unaided, and managing their own business which must, in the organizers’ view, have great potential for growth.

For more information
www2.goldmansachs.com/citizenship/10000women/about-the-program/about-the-program-main-page.html

Three new Latin American and Caribbean investments for European venture philanthropy fund

Liechtenstein-based venture philanthropy organization LGT Venture Philanthropy has recently added three organizations from Latin America and Caribbean to its portfolio. Meds & Food for Kids (MFK - pictured) combats childhood malnutrition in Haiti; Por Ti Familia (PTF), in Peru, provides high-quality and affordable healthcare to Lima’s urban low-income and emerging middle-class communities; and Enseña Chile (ECh) brings outstanding university graduates with leadership skills to teach in schools in poor areas. Wolfgang Hafenmayer, CEO of LGT VP, said: ‘Latin America and the Caribbean is an area of many organizations with outstanding social and environmental solutions. Our aim is to support them with well-aimed resources of both money and advice.’

For more information
www.lgtvp.com

UN report finds room for improvement in region’s progress towards MDGs

The newly released Millennium Development Goals report from the UN paints a generally optimistic picture of the likelihood of the goals being met across the region. However, while Latin America and the Caribbean were often better placed in respect of them than most developing regions to start with, progress towards their achievement has sometimes been slower. The percentage of people in extreme poverty was among the lowest in the developing regions in 1990 (11 per cent) but has also seen one of the least rapid declines (to 7 per cent in 2005), leaving the region still some way short of meeting the goal of halving the number by 2015. The Caribbean, treated separately in the UN’s reckoning under this head, is in a slightly worse state. There, the corresponding percentages are 29 and 26.

Similarly, the percentage of children enrolled in primary education only rose from 93 to 95 between 1990 and 2009 (the 2015 target is universal enrolment). In regard to child and maternal health, the region has met its target of reducing the number of underweight children by half. The percentage has fallen from 10 per cent to 4 per cent over the period 1990-2009, and child mortality has fallen from 52 to 23 per thousand live births (the average across developing regions is 65). However, as with all the developing regions, children in rural areas are at considerably more risk than their urban counterparts. Maternal deaths also declined significantly (from 130 per 100,000 live births in 1998 to 80 in 2009) – again both figures that are a long way below the developing country averages. One of the most noticeable strides has been made in the care of pregnant women. The proportion of women (15-49 years old) attended at least once by skilled health personnel during pregnancy rose from 77 per cent in 1990 to 95 per cent in 2009.

Overall, the report notes that, across all regions, progress on the economic indicators has slowed because of the recession, and that grave disparities exist between urban and rural areas, with the latter generally trailing behind overall progress.

For more information
www.un.org/millenniumgoals/11_MDG%20Report_EN.pdf

New initiatives to encourage and chart CSR in Latin America

Revista Mercado (Market Magazine), a leading Argentine business sector publication, is to carry out a large-scale research project on the breadth of corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices in Argentina, their scope and content, perspectives for the future, and how other companies can replicate this practice. This year, Revista Mercado is generating a baseline for the study, which will take place annually, drawn from the annual reports of companies with developed CSR practices. Evaluation criteria have been established, and ten reports deserving special assessment noted, with a detailed list of the reasons behind this valuation and the parameters on which they were based.

Meantime, in another advance for CSR in the region, Voluntare, the first international network to encourage corporate volunteering in Latin America, has been set up with the aim of identifying innovative models in this area. The network provides a source of knowledge for all organizations and individuals interested in corporate volunteering.  Its website compiles reference information such as reports, documents, good practices and relevant news. Founder members of the network include Fundación Telefónica, Endesa, Unilever, KPMG, Fundación Bip Bip, Fundación CODESPA, Fundar, Forum Empresa (Company Forum) and Fundación Corresponsables (Co-responsible Foundation).

For more information
www.mercado.com.ar
www.voluntare.org

Mixed record for Latin American governments on NGO relations

Among Latin American countries, Brazil and Chile lead in terms of respecting the right to freedom of association. Cuba trails the pack. These are the findings of a study recently concluded by Carlos Ponce, a fellow at the US’s National Endowment for Democracy. According to his research, Brazil and Chile have fair systems for registration and operation of NGOs and online access to information, and NGOs can register in less than six months. Their operations are free from intrusive government control and the government itself has an effective system in place for providing them with tax exemptions. Argentina, Mexico and El Salvador also scored relatively well.

Cuba was by far the worst, with Venezuela, Honduras, Ecuador and Nicaragua also not showing well. Even when Cuban law allows for the registration of a civil society organization, its freedom to operate is severely limited, says Ponce, while in Venezuela the 2010 Law on Political Sovereignty curtails the ability of human rights and democracy organizations to associate, assemble and speak on issues of public importance. The government also restricts the registration of civil society organizations, as well as persecuting and attacking civil society leaders.

Source
Fox News Latino, 4 June 2011

IDB to support latest Brazilian efforts to combat extreme poverty

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) is to provide technical assistance to support Brazil's efforts to fight extreme poverty, helping the country’s government to measure the development impact of social programmes. The country has just announced a new initiative, the Brazil without Poverty Plan, which will seek to lift more than 16 million Brazilians out of extreme poverty. The bank is also to invest about $6 billion by 2014 to improve infrastructure, such as urban transportation and water and sanitation, in Brazilian cities participating in the football World Cup. The announcement follows the meeting between IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff at the end of June.

For more information
www.iadb.org/en/news/news-releases/2011-06-29/brazil-in-fight-against-ex...