Demographic diversity: challenge and opportunity for Latin America and the Caribbean

In Latin America and the Caribbeana region of 658 million inhabitants marked by inequality, there are countries that are already facing the aging of their population and others that still have the window of Demographic bonus. This coexistence is a challenge and at the same time an opportunity to achieve public politics that address these differences in a flexible way and putting the person at the center.

“It is still important in this region that we continue to be very clear that we have a situation of demographic diversity” which “it challenges us but also invites us to make prepared, anticipated and evidence-based decisions”said in an interview with EFE in Panama City the regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean of the United Nations Population Fund (Unfpa), the Argentine Susana Sottoli.

The UNFPA launched this Wednesday its annual report on the State of the World Population alerting that the “demographic anxiety has become a widespread phenomenon”and calling for a 180-degree turn in national positions in the face of changes in the population that include, more and more frequently, policies aimed at increasing, reducing or maintaining fertility rates.

In the document “8,000 million lives, infinite possibilities: arguments in favor of rights and freedoms”UNFPA proposes that “Instead of asking how fast citizens have children, leaders must consider whether all people – and especially women – are in a position to exercise their reproductive freedom”a question in which “On too many occasions the answer is ‘no’”.

“Go beyond the numbers, that is the main message, turn around our analysis of the changes and dynamics of the population and understand that at the center of these analyzes are people, their rights and above all their right to make decisions about their reproductive, work and family life”Sottoli said.

To talk about numbers, he specified, “We are approximately 658 million people in Latin America and the Caribbean. This is a number that does not particularly mean anything positive or negative, it is a fact. It would be 658 million opportunities”affirmed the regional director of UNFPA.

Demographic changes and public policies in Latin America

The demographic changes that Latin America and the Caribbean are experiencing reveal, once again, that it is a region “very unequal, very inequitable in any aspect of development”, said the international official.

“We have a majority of countries that are already beginning to see the aging of their population, countries like Chili, Uruguay, Cuba, Costa Rica, Mexico. And others that still have a young population, which can be called the demographic bonus, countries like Haiti, Nicaraguagenerally the countries of Central America”Sottoli explained.

Even within the same country in the region there are “Population aging but also high adolescent pregnancy, a youth that still needs attention”which leads both decision makers and the different cooperation agencies to see this situation “with a life cycle approach”.

and although “many countries” from Latin America and the Caribbean “they have population policies or strategies” it is in any case “a fledgling job” before which the Population Fund is optimistic in “the conversation about these demographic changes and what they are going to really affect”.

”Without the need to replicate any model, in this region we have time to learn lessons from other regions and prepare ourselves better. A necessary word for public policy on this agenda is anticipation. Use data to make evidence-based decisions and put people at the center of public policy”Sottoli said.

The Population Fund works in almost all Latin American countries to strengthen information systems, including demographic information.

and accompanies “This conversation about what is a population policy design that includes solid data from censuses, surveys and that based on that evidence can begin to design or plan the social protection, pension, and health services that are going to being affected, positively or negatively depending on the situation, by these population changes”indicated.

Source: EFE