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Ecuadorian society has overcome adversity with great determination over the past few years. Periodic economic crises, external shocks, and even natural disasters tested the country's ability to cope with difficulties. Despite these challenges, the country has maintained a forward looking perspective and has achieved some important goals. Economic stability in the last few years has ushered in a period of sustained economic growth. During this period several development indicators have improved, and several sectors of the economy have demonstrated the dynamism and entrepreneurship that is present in the Ecuadorian culture. Revisiting Ecuador's Economic and Social Agenda in an Evolving Landscape aims to provoke a lively discussion between the World Bank, the new Correa administration, and the entire country, in addressing the unresolved issues that require a thoughtful approach.
For the first time in the republican history of Peru, the presidential transition takes place in democracy, social peace, fast economic growth and favorable world markets. In other words, there has never been a better chance to build a different Peru - a richer country, more equal and governable. There are multiple ways to achieve that goal. New reforms must stem from a widespread and participatory debate, one of a common vision conceived for and by Peruvians. This book aims at making a technical and independent contribution to such debate; it summarizes the knowledge available about the challenges to be faced by the new administration. The study does not recommend silver bullets, but sugges...
This book highlights the importance of renting and its potential to help solve the most pressing housing problems in Latin America and the Caribbean. Currently, 1 in 5 households in the region rent their homes, a trend which is most prevalent among the fastest-growing segments of the population, such as young people, single-person households and divorced people. This alternative can therefore help satisfy demand preferences and create greater residential mobility. Also, the quality of rented property is often similar to that of formal homes, even for households in the lowest income quintiles, proving it is an efficient and cost-effective alternative for resolving the qualitative and quantitative housing deficits in the region, suggesting that housing policies linked to better planning and improved territorial organization can lead to more dense, compact cities. For these reasons, the rental market may become a key instrument to compliment the region's housing policy.
Riobamba and Cuenca, two intermediate cities in Ecuador, have become part of global networks through transnational migration, incoming remittances, tourism, and global economic connections. Their landscape is changing in several significant ways, a reflection of the social and urban transformations occurring in contemporary Ecuadorian society. Exploring the discourses and actions of two contrasting population groups, rarely studied in tandem, within these cities—popular-settlement residents and professionals in the planning and construction sector—this study analyzes how each is involved in house designs and neighborhood consolidation. Ideas, ambitions, and power relations come into play at every stage of the production and use of urban space, and as a result individual decisions about both house designs and the urban layout influence the development of the urban fabric. Knowledge about intermediate cities is crucial in order to understand current trends in the predominantly urban societies of Latin America, and this study is an example of needed interdisciplinary scholarship that contributes to the fields of urban studies, urban anthropology, sociology, and architecture.
Although science has unlocked the secrets of the human genome, the causes of social and economic development remain stubbornly enigmatic. Why do some countries adopt new technologies more readily than others? Why does income inequality persist in some regions--even in the face of rapid economic growth? Why do some societies welcome the challenges of globalization while others attempt to turn back the tide? Honoring the Past, Building the Future examines these and many related questions through the experience of Latin America and the Caribbean. In an accessible, journalistic style, author Ricardo Ávila explores a tumultuous half-century in which the region went from backwater to breadbasket, from dictatorship to democracy, and from economic basket case to emerging power.
This book examines the validity of a social guarantees approach as a framework for evaluating, monitoring, and improving the design of social policy. Social guarantees are defined as sets of policy mechanisms that determine citizens' entitlements related to basic services and ensure their fulfillment on the part of the state. The social guarantee concept gives operational expression to fundamental human rights principles by providing mechanisms for awareness, participation, equity, and redress in the delivery of social policy. In addition, the social guarantees approach responds to an emerging.
"For decades, studies of oil-related conflicts focused on the causes and effects of natural resources mismanagement, commonly known as the "resource curse"-the paradoxical connection between oil wealth and economic busts (as in Venezuela) or, in a later twist, the link between the predatory behavior of armed rebel organizations and the abundant natural resources that funded their existence. Patricia Vasquez notes that oil busts and civil wars associated with the resource curse were quite different from the now-predominant local hydrocarbons disputes that are multiplying rapidly in Latin America. These more recent, localized disputes-over land, population displacement, water contamination, oi...
Contemporary tax burden differences in Latin America are a function of historical threats to private property.
Argentina’s path to economic prosperity is through efficient, sustainable and economically thriving cities. Not only are cities a spatial concentration of people, but also they generate agglomeration economies by concentrating ideas, talent, and knowledge. Argentina is one of the most urbanized countries in Latin America, with 90 percent of Argentine people currently living in cities. Argentina’s cities are geographically and economically diverse, and its largest urban area †“ Metropolitan Buenos Aires †“ is one of Latin America’s urban giants. Argentine cities need to address three main challenges to leverage their economic potential. Argentina’s current patterns of urban de...
Recent political changes in Colombia have opened up possibilities to think beyond the long-standing conflict and violence to promote a development agenda, based upon economic growth, social welfare and environmental protection. This publication contains various policy papers which seek to contribute to the national debate on options to address these development challenges. The book is intended to provide the incoming Colombian presidential administration with a comprehensive policy discussion regarding the country's development agenda.