Strengthening public policies in the field of social protection and equality
Social protection is a major topic of debate and policy on the Latin American public agenda. ECLAC’s Social Development Division’s work on social protection seeks to disseminate knowledge accumulated on matters of social protection in order to promote comprehensive public policies that have an impact on poverty and inequality.

Activities: • A bilingual (in Spanish and English) web portal (http://dds.cepal.org/socialprotection/) was launched in November 2012 in order to disseminate knowledge on social protection as a key development strategy to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, especially MDG1 on poverty and hunger. It presents regional and country publications, databases on social protection programmes, activities, news and links to other organizations and websites.
• Twenty country reports on social protection systems in Latin American and Caribbean countries have been published in English, Spanish and/or French (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago and Uruguay). They aim at disseminating knowledge and at discussing the main challenges of social protection systems in terms of achieving key development goals, such as combating poverty and hunger.
• An expert group meeting on the definition of strategic priorities for the regional agenda on the situation of disabled people was carried out in Santiago, Chile, on May 14-15, 2013. The project sponsored the session on social protection and disabilities.
• A thematic seminar on “Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ESCR) Indicators and Monitoring of Social Policies for Overcoming Poverty and Achieving Equality” was carried out in Santiago, Chile in June 2013.
• A regional seminar on “Public policies for equality: Towards universal social protection systems” was carried out in Montevideo, Uruguay in December 2013.

Beneficiaries:
• Seven countries (Barbados, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Jamaica, Panama and San Vincent and the Grenadines) participated in the May 2013 seminar on disability.
• Seven countries (Argentina, Bolivia, Brasil, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico and Uruguay) participated in the June 2013 seminar on ESCR indicators.
• Twelve Latin American and Caribbean countries (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Honduras, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay) participated in the December 2013 seminar on universal social protection.

Partnerships and Financing
• The May 2013 seminar on disability was organized by ECLAC in partnership with other agencies (including the World Bank, the Trust for the Americas, Colombia’s Fundación Saldarriaga Concha, the OAS, the IADB, etc.).
• The June 2013 seminar on ESCR indicators was carried out by ECLAC and the National Institute on Human Rights of Chile (INDH) in collaboration with various partners, including OHCHR, OAS and IPPDH.
• The December 2013 seminar on universal social protection was carried out in collaboration with the Ministry of Social Development of Uruguay, and with the financial support of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
dds.cepal.org/socialprotection/

Information available in Spanish

Information available in Spanish

Information available in Spanish

Information available in Spanish

Through the publication, the Social Panorama of Latin America, and publications related to social protection systems and most vulnerable groups such as women and youth. ECLAC continued to disseminate information and to promote the debate on the new employment-related targets incorporated in the MDGs, the demographic dividend as an opportunity for expanding secondary education coverage, and the issue of youth and family violence from a perspective of social inclusion, among others. In this context ECLAC, led an inter-agency effort in the preparation of the document 2010 Assessment of the Millennium Development Goals in Latin America and the Caribbean.