Climate Change, Social Inequality and Health Crisis in Ibero-America Countries

Conference Overview

At the beginning of the 21st century, the Covid-19 pandemic marked the future of humanity, exacerbating social problems in Latin America and abroad and making it increasingly difficult to achieve general wellbeing. Current generations faced a singular health challenge with widespread effects on economic activity and living conditions, deepening existing problems while revealing new ones.

Although the origin of the problem was common – the SARS-CoV-2 virus – its impacts across societies, nations, and regions were heterogeneous, as were its effects on economies, social relations, wellbeing, and rights in the short, medium, and long term.

At the beginning of the century, Latin America had continued to insert itself into the international economy largely through the export of commodities. The financial crisis of 2008–2009, followed by the pandemic, interrupted and reduced growth rates in several countries. From a social perspective, the region also continued to face widespread poverty and longstanding socioeconomic inequality, while responses to the coronavirus brought a weakening of social cohesion and greater expressions of discontent and vulnerability.

High mortality, enormous demands on public health resources, and restrictions on the physical mobility of goods and people also imposed significant economic costs across the region. At the same time, the closure of parts of industry and reductions in international flights and transportation temporarily decreased fossil-fuel use and air pollution, raising questions about whether environmental improvements could be sustained following economic reactivation.

Politically, Latin America entered the 21st century following a period of expansion in democratic methods for electing governments, although this did not necessarily translate into greater governance or the consolidation of states and laws.

Against this background, prospects for economic reactivation depended first on the dissemination of scientific advances to immunize the population and subsequently on the implementation of economic and social policies capable of pursuing more economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable development across the region.

Academic Areas of Discussion (Networks)

1. The State of Socioeconomics in Ibero-America: Methodology of the Social Science
2. Migration and Urbanization
3. Historical Heritage and Sustainable Development: Challenges and Perspectives
4. Technological Innovation, Productive and Commercial Specialization, Labor Relations, Informality and Precarious Jobs
5. Deglaciation, Groundwater and Water Stress: Risks and Disasters
6. Management, Decentralization and Local Development: Urbanization, Waste and Agriculture
7. Drug Trafficking: Social and Environmental Problem
8. Gender Gaps
9. Social Inequality and Poverty
10. Traditional and Ecological Tourism in Local Development
11. Natural Resources, Agriculture and Biodiversity
12. Pandemic, Global Recession and Health Crisis

Featured Speakers

Rolando Cordera Campos

Rolando Cordera Campos studied Economics at UNAM and completed postgraduate studies at the London School of Economics. At the time of the conference, he was coordinator of UNAM’s University Program for Development Studies.

His distinctions included the National University Prize in Economic-Administrative Sciences, Level III membership in Mexico’s National System of Researchers, Professor Emeritus of UNAM’s Faculty of Economics, an honorary doctorate from the Autonomous Metropolitan University, and ECLAC’s Raúl Prebisch Chair.

He was a member of the Institute for Studies for the Democratic Transition, the Mexican Academy of Political Economy, the Seminar of Mexican Culture, and UNAM’s New Development Course Group. He was also a weekly contributor to La Jornada and El Financiero, a member of the editorial board of EconomíaUNAM, and director of Configuraciones. His extensive publications focused particularly on development, inequality, social policy, and the Mexican economy.

Ricardo Ffrench-Davis

Ricardo Ffrench-Davis was Professor of Economics at the University of Chile, where he had taught since 1962, and received his PhD in Economics from the University of Chicago.

His previous positions included Director of Studies of the Central Bank of Chile, Principal Regional Advisor of ECLAC, co-founder of CIEPLAN, and President of the United Nations Development Policy Committee. He had published 21 books and 160 articles and received the Chilean National Award for Humanities and Social Sciences in 2005. His most recent book was Economic Reforms in Chile, 1973–2017.

Félix Jimenez

Félix Jimenez was Senior Lecturer in the Department of Economics at PUCP and a researcher at Renacyt-Concytec Carlos Monge Medrano III.

His principal research areas included Macroeconomics, Monetary Theory, Public Finance, and Economic Growth. His books included Elements of Macroeconomic Theory and Policy for an Open Economy, Macroeconomics: Approaches and Models, Economic Growth: Approaches and Models, and The Peruvian Economy of the Last Half Century: Interpretation Essays.

Amy C. Offner

Amy C. Offner was Associate Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research examined the history of the Americas with a focus on political economy, empire, and social and intellectual history.

She was the author of Sorting Out the Mixed Economy: The Rise and Fall of Welfare and Developmental States in the Americas (Princeton, 2019), which received book prizes from SASE, the Economic History Society, the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, and the Latin American and Caribbean Section of the Southern Historical Association.

Her research had been supported by institutions including the ACLS, SSRC, the Charles Warren Center at Harvard University, and the Kluge Center at the Library of Congress.

Daniela Magalhães Prates

Featured presentation: External Vulnerability of Developing Countries in the Midst of the COVID-19 Crisis

Daniela Magalhães Prates was Senior Economic Affairs Officer at UNCTAD and Associate Professor of Economics, on leave, at the University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Brazil.

Her principal research areas were International Economics and Open Macroeconomics, with a particular focus on monetary and financial issues and developing countries. Her work had appeared in journals including the Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Review of Keynesian Economics, International Review of Applied Economics, and ECLAC Review, as well as in numerous book chapters.

Featured Panels

The conference also included six special panels addressing major economic and social issues facing Ibero-America during and following the pandemic:

1. La Perspectiva de Género tras la Pandemia
   Chair: Laura Pérez Ortiz, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
   Discussants: Alma Espino, Virginia Maquieira, and Pilar Montero

2. Los Desafíos de las Migraciones en América Latina
   Chair: Cristian Dario Castillo Robayo, Universidad Católica de Bogotá
   Discussants: William Orlando Prieto Bustos, Gizette Lemus León, Sandro Eduardo Monsueto, and Jacobo Campo Robledo

3. El Empleo en América Latina
   Chair: Jorge Luis Delgado Salazar, Universidad Católica de Santiago de Guayaquil
   Discussants: Segundo Camino-Mogro, Uriel Castillo, Erwin Guillén, and Carlos Manuel Recuay Cóndor

4. Desafíos de las Políticas de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación en la Era Digital
   Chair: Ana Urraca-Ruiz, Universidad Federal Fluminense
   Discussants: Luciano Coutinho, Gabriela Dutrénit, Francisco Louçã, and Carlos Frederico Leão Rocha

5. Sindicatos y Negociación Colectiva
   Chair: Ana Viñas Apaolaza, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
   Discussants: Hugo Barretto Ghione, Maria del Mar Alarcón Castellanos, Jorge Rosenbaum, and Jesús Cruz Villalón

6. Desafíos Macroeconómicos en la Era Postcovid en Iberoamérica
   Chair: Julimar da Silva Bichara, Autonomous University of Madrid
   Discussants: Jorge Eduardo Carrera, André Moreira Cunha, Barbara Fritz, and Gabriela Mordecki