Social Policy Responses to the COVID-19 Crisis and the Road Ahead

Aside from the health challenge, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought an unprecedented social crisis to Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). To avoid a humanitarian disaster, governments across the region have responded with a marked expansion of social protection measures. These, however, vary greatly with regard to speed, breadth, and sufficiency. People cannot stay at home if they cannot feed their families. Governments recognised at varying speeds that income assistance measures are central to an effective epidemiological strategy. Both the lockdown measures and the associated economic crises have highlighted the gaps in existing social protections in Latin America, as half of the region's employed population works in the informal sector. Many of these workers lost their income virtually overnight. To cover the needs of informal workers, the most effective governments established relatively inclusive eligibility criteria for cash assistance that allowed low-income households to self-identify and apply. The result is an extended registry that has expanded state capacity, on which further social protection policies can build. The region's two largest economies, Mexico and Brazil, have both suffered high pandemic-related infection and mortality rates, but sharply differ in their social policy approach. The left-wing Mexican government stands out for not establishing any nationwide cash assistance programme in the wake of COVID-19. By contrast, Brazil underwent a massive, opposition-driven expansion of social protection coverage, which eventually boosted the right-wing government's approval ratings among the poor. This year's Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the World Food Programme on 9 October recognizes the fundamental human need for sustenance. The social protection floors that were established ad hoc in the course of the COVID-19 crisis in Latin America need to now be extended to ensure that families can continue to feed themselves. The policy expansion efforts of the crisis could be used as an opportunity to overcome the deficiencies of Latin America's social security schemes and to build a more universal social protection floor for the longer term

Assessing the Political and Social Impact of the COVID-19 Crisis in Latin America

The COVID-19 pandemic is testing the societies of the world's most unequal continent, where many depend on informal work for their livelihood. Social-distancing measures directly affect their livelihoods, and make immediate social assistance imperative. The crisis is also testing political leadership, as some presidents are emerging as strong, unifying leaders, while others flounder, in a continent where historically trust in formal institutions is low. Decisive leadership has proven crucial for implementing wide-ranging lockdowns, and for the immediate commitment to social assistance. The presidents of Argentina and Peru stand out as examples of fast and coordinated responses. The potential abuse of extraordinary powers raises concerns for the medium run. In Chile and Bolivia, governments struggling with legitimacy after last year's massive protests have had to postpone a constitutional convention vote in the former and presidential elections in the latter. Many governments have quickly promised social assistance. An enormous economic rescue package in Chile stands out for its stinginess towards the most vulnerable. Where populist presidents from the right (Brazil) or left (Mexico) deny the seriousness of the pandemic, subnational and other authorities seek to fill the leadership vacuum - but policy implementation is harmed. The heaviest price will be paid by the most vulnerable. Latin America will suffer from post-crisis external shocks. With little aid coming from the United States or Europe, China emerges as a key hope for shipments of face masks, test kits, and protective gear. As COVID spreads - with higher or flatter curves - health systems will struggle to treat the severely affected. Lockdowns will be differentially respected, as promises of emergency social assistance need to be immediately delivered. Where the executive uses the moment at hand for narrow political gains, sharp political conflict is likely to ensue. Multilateral initiatives to secure social protection for vulnerable households in the region are needed

Paid domestic work and the struggles of care workers in Latin America

About 30% of households are intimately involved in paid domestic work in Latin America, either as employers or as workers. Paid domestic workers overwhelmingly are female, from racial and ethnic minorities, and earn low wages. Labour codes have historically accorded them fewer rights and protections. Domestic workers have organized to demand equal rights, and recently, this organizing has begun to pay off. This article discusses the dynamics of paid domestic work through the themes of commodification and changes in government policies. Through a comparison of post-millennium Brazil, Uruguay, Mexico and Peru, the article compares the working conditions and struggles of domestic workers and highlights the factors that explain different outcomes in terms of labour rights and protections across these countries. It is argued that stronger rights and protections were made possible by the interactive effects of domestic workers organizing, more sympathetic left-wing governments, and the watershed ILO 2011 Convention on Domestic Workers.</p

Beyond states and markets: Families and family regimes in Latin America

Much of the literature on social policies and social development in Latin America recognizes the notion of welfare regimes as critical to our understanding of the social protection and well-being of individuals, granting thus a relevant role to markets, states, families and their interactions (Filgueira 2007; Martínez Franzoni 2007). Yet while states—through social, labor and regulatory policies, and their impact on employment, wages and access to goods and services—have received broad and in-depth scrutiny, families have been rather neglected. This chapter seeks to contribute to correct this blind-spot by looking at the structural trends regarding family change and at how they are fueled by— and interact with—markets and state transformations. Such trends and dynamics radically alter the capacity and role of families as units of social protection and of resource enclosure and distribution. Gender, age and family arrangements are transformed and create different family regimes with relevant implications regarding the capacity and type of protection families provide to their different members.UCR::Vicerrectoría de Investigación::Unidades de Investigación::Ciencias Sociales::Centro de Investigación y Estudios Políticos (CIEP)UCR::Vicerrectoría de Docencia::Ciencias Sociales::Facultad de Ciencias Sociales::Escuela de Ciencias Política

The Shadow Pandemic: Policy Efforts on Gender-Based Violence during COVID-19 in the Global South

Even before COVID-19 hit, one in three women experienced violence by a partner or sexual violence by a non-partner, according to the World Health Organization. With the pandemic, the risk of violence against women and children, especially within the home, increased further as people sheltered at home while facing great financial and emotional stress. Our assessment of government policies in a cross-regional sample of countries in Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa since the pandemic's onset in early 2020 finds that: governments increased communication and digital services addressing GBV, such as hotlines, counselling, and reporting mechanisms, but struggled to meet increased demand for emergency services; states with existing robust GBV services were better prepared to continue service provision during the pandemic; beyond this, the gender ideology of the political leader made a difference in prioritisation and visibility; in Latin America, national-level responses were heterogeneous, ranging from dismissiveness by the presidents of Mexico and Brazil to new and proactive policies by the government of Argentina; and in neither Uganda nor any of the countries studied in MENA were shelters classified as essential services. Even in South Africa, where shelters were classified as essential, lockdowns complicated access. There is an urgent need for stronger policy responses to GBV, and not just for humanitarian reasons. The United Nations has estimated the economic costs of violence against women at about 2 per cent of global GDP. Governments need to ensure that emergency GBV services exist beyond hotlines and remain open and accessible around the clock. Non-governmental organisations play a vital role in GBV service provision but should not substitute for government provision. German and EU policies should encourage and support the development of GBV infrastructure, including first-response services, shelters, and gender-sensitive social protection programmes

Towards a global universal basic income for children

Our policy brief directly addresses Germany’s G-7 priority of tackling issues of “particular global urgency .... to achieve tangible improvements for the people – within G7 countries and beyond, especially in newly industrialising and developing countries” by proposing a global basic income for all children. Even before COVID-19 hit, children were globally twice as likely as adults to live in extreme poverty, with long- term consequences for their life chances. During the past two years, the economic fall-out from the pandemic as well as school closures have further disproportionately hit children. Global shocks, whether pandemics or extreme weather conditions linked to climate change, are likely to only become more common, with negative shocks to our economies and social fabric, and ensuing humanitarian and migratory crises. We call for the establishment of a global universal basic income for all families with children, targeted preferentially via mothers, to ensure access to basic needs. This technically and fiscally feasible measure will have far-reaching benefits in the wellbeing and human capital of the next generation, directly addressing the G-7 policy priorities #2 (economic stability and transformation), #3 (healthy lives) and #5 (stronger together), and indirectly addressing priorities #1 (a sustainable planet) and #4 (investment in a better future). Furthermore, it will set a historical symbolic landmark: the beginning of a true sense of global citizenship where every child born will have his/her most basic needs guaranteed.UCR::Vicerrectoría de Investigación::Unidades de Investigación::Ciencias Sociales::Centro de Investigación y Estudios Políticos (CIEP

Care Work and Class Domestic Workers' Struggle for Equal Rights in Latin America

Despite constitutions that enshrine equality, until recently every state in Latin America permitted longer working hours (in some cases more than double the hours) and lower benefits for domestic workers than other workers. This has, in effect, subsidized a cheap labor force for middle- and upper-class families and enabled well-to-do women to enter professional labor markets without having to negotiate household and care work with their male partners. While elite resistance to reform has been widespread, during the past fifteen years a handful of countries have instituted equal rights. In Care Work and Class, Merike Blofield examines how domestic workers' mobilization, strategic alliances, and political windows of opportunity, mostly linked to left-wing executive and legislative allies, can lead to improved rights even in a region as unequal as Latin America. Blofield also examines the conditions that lead to better enforcement of rights