Over one-half of the Andean population --some sixty million people-- lives below the poverty line. Almost one-quarter of the people are indigent. Income concentration rates in the Andean countries are among Latin America’s highest. Social protection services targeting the poorest and most vulnerable population sectors are dramatically insufficient, inefficient and unstable. Education that is poor in quality for the masses and elitist for the chosen few reproduces the concentrated income distribution pattern and consolidates the inflexible social structure. Open unemployment and underemployment have reached dramatically high levels in all of the subregion’s countries and the insecurity and instability of employment have increased.

Macroeconomic structural adjustment policies applied in the region in response to market globalization have not ensured greater social equity and better redistribution of wealth. On the contrary, they have deepened the inequalities and asymmetries noted, thereby contributing to inequity in the subregion and the violation of the human rights ratified in the International Pact relative to Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Andean Charter for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights.

It is an undeniable fact that only through a socially equitable integral development process will the effective exercise of these rights be possible. For that reason, it is essential to not only promote favorable conditions for that development, but also to design and execute policies that are explicitly aimed at promoting the population’s welfare. The active, free and significant participation of the population in the development process should guarantee the equitable distribution of the benefits of this development.

This, in general terms, is the critical social situation confronting the Andean countries on the threshold of the new millennium, in which the challenges to our development are increasingly complex. Among the most important challenges that will have to be met are the following:

Some important conclusions can be drawn from a brief diagnosis of the current social situation in the Andean countries that should be taken into consideration in formulating and executing a Community strategy to fight poverty, exclusion and social inequality. These can be summarized as follows:

a) It is impossible to reduce prevailing poverty levels without significant economic growth.

According to ECLAC calculations, an annual per capita GDP of at least 2.2% to 2.7% (an annual GDP growth of approximately 5%) will be needed in order to reduce poverty levels in the Andean countries.

b) Economic growth does not automatically reduce poverty.

Even if the cited economic growth rates are reached, the extent to which poverty is reduced will depend upon the policies and measures that are applied to ensure that the fruits of economic growth effectively reach the poorest and most vulnerable population sectors.

c) The volatility of economic growth conspires against the reduction of poverty because it impedes the consolidation of progress and because it almost always results in a reduction of public social spending.

It is precisely the poorest people who have the weakest defenses against recession and, for that reason, it is necessary to implement policies that protect the indigent population from the consequences of economic instability.

d) The concentrated distribution of income and wealth in our societies is responsible for the weak relationship between economic growth and the reduction of poverty.

The progressive correction of the distortion due to the inequality of opportunities prevailing in Andean societies is just as important as dynamic, stable and sustained economic growth.

The Andean Social Agenda, consisting of a series of actions agreed upon by the Member Countries to develop the social dimension of the integration process, should help to consolidate that process, improve the quality of life of the Andean inhabitants, and ensure fuller social participation in decision-making and in the enjoyment of the benefits of integration, and aim at better quality participation by Andean countries in the world economy.

A Social Agenda thus understood involves taking action in at least the following major areas:

a) The social dimension of the integration process

b) The Community’s strategy to improve the Andean population’s quality of life

c) Participation by the citizens in the integration process

The purpose of the Integral Plan for Social Development (IPSD), as a Community social strategy, is to undertake actions (activities, projects and programs) on a subregional scale to enhance and supplement national policies for overcoming poverty and social inequity. In that sense, the IPSD is the widest-ranging proposal within the Andean Social Agenda’s second cited area of action. It is important, however, not to lose sight of the links that exist between the three areas. By way of example, efforts made by the Member Countries to broaden the coverage and improve the quality of education not only help fight poverty and guarantee the exercise of a fundamental human right, but also allow the population to take a more active and better-informed part in decision-making, including decisions that affect the course of the integration process. Similarly, the recent start-up of new socio-labor instruments on migration, social security or health and safety at work will not only help to consolidate the enlarged market, but at the same time will contribute to social equity and the protection of workers.

Furthermore, a strategy for overcoming poverty and social inequity should not be restricted to taking action designed to alleviate their consequences and expressions, although the importance of having efficient basic social protection systems in place for the poorest and most vulnerable population sectors cannot be denied. While it is destined to be an important element of our countries’ social policy for a long time to come, the fight against poverty, exclusion and social inequality cannot be limited to that arena.

That explains why the Community strategy the Member Countries will adopt to coordinate efforts, share experiences and cooperate in improving the peoples’ standards of living and living conditions should emphasize the spheres of health, education and productive employment.

The emphasis on health and education --the latter being understood as integral development and training in values, together with the development of skills and abilities-- is justified because it is the coverage and quality of these two basic social services that will essentially determine people’s opportunities to participate in society as citizens with the full exercise of their rights and powers. Infant mortality and morbidity, malnutrition, the presence of preventable diseases, restricted access to health services and medicines, etc. are others of the many obstacles to that full participation. Illiteracy, the population’s limited access to the less elementary levels of school education, poverty, the little relevance of the knowledge acquired or the poor quality of education provided are causes for similar limitations. It is for those reasons that a strategy for reducing poverty, exclusion and social inequality must necessarily prioritize the development of those sectors.

Employment, for its part, is the main means to obtain an income, making it a basic link between economic growth and the reduction of poverty. That is why rising unemployment levels in the Andean countries in recent years, due for the most part to the weakness and instability of economic growth, but also attributable to the progressively weakening relationship noted between economic growth and the generation of employment, is a major cause for alarm. Another matter of concern is the continued existence of underemployment in the subregion and the low levels of productivity and income this produces for a large sector of the employed population. As a result, the Andean Community’s social development strategy must give special attention to the cooperation Member Countries are able to institute for the purpose of examining and renewing approaches, policies and programs that will enhance the options and opportunities to promote productive jobs, improve their quality and work out labor development and training policies.

A Community strategy for fighting poverty, exclusion and social inequality should also help to reduce major differences in levels of development within the Andean subregion. The Andean integration process, according to its establishing treaty, has the mission of expediting the harmonious development of its Member Countries. This means contributing to the gradual formation of a socially cohesive subregional space with no major differences in living standards and prospects for social progress among countries or between regions of the same country. That is why the Cartagena Agreement provides for a special regime for Bolivia and Ecuador --the subregion’s two relatively less developed countries--, together with policies and actions to promote the integral development of border areas, generally known for their abandonment by the central power and their inhabitants’ poverty, and attention to the needs of the predominantly rural depressed areas within the countries¹.

In the future, national and Community social authorities can identify new instruments to contribute to the development of the subregion’s poorest and most depressed areas. The resolution of the Fourteenth Meeting of the Andean Council of Presidents prioritizing not only the Integral Plan for Social Development, but also the creation of innovative financial mechanisms to support democratic governance and fight poverty is a step in that direction².

It is important to stress that the principle implicit in the above-cited provisions of the Cartagena Agreement is that of solidarity among national societies that, like the Andean, have decided to join efforts to move together toward the common objective of expediting their integral development. That principle assumes that by working together, the five countries can achieve goals that would have been difficult or impossible to reach otherwise, as suggested in the document submitted by the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry for the consideration of the Thirteenth Andean Council of Presidents, when it states that the “...Andean integration process, like all integrating decisions, opens up countless opportunities and offers an enormous potential for reducing problems of social imbalances in the region.” ³

Together with the reaffirmation of this principle of subregional solidarity, there is the pragmatic consideration that all integration processes may affect some social and economic sectors, at least in the short term. For example, the changes in production patterns that tend to accompany the integration of national markets into broader and more competitive ones may possibly eliminate some sources of employment. It is just as important, however, to clearly identify the national regions and social groups that benefit directly from the integration process. It is important to emphasize and promote the new jobs created by vigorous intraregional trade in which priority is given to high-value-added goods because of advances made in building the common market and the consequent development of production chains. In addition, the free trade and the growing economic ties between Andean countries have produced an economic boost that has benefited entire regions of the Member Countries.

For that reason, it is important to explain the links that exist between integration and social development and to identify means, actions or modalities for maximizing the socially beneficial effects of this interrelationship and preventing or offsetting the damage an integration process can cause to given social groups, particularly the most vulnerable ones. A socially responsible leadership of the integration process should be able to evaluate those social costs beforehand and take the necessary action to avoid, lessen or offset them.

Along a different line, it is important to underscore the integrated nature given to the subregional social development strategy by the Presidents in their directive on the IPSD, which expresses an important political will to transcend the sectoral approaches to social policy that frequently predominate in our countries⁴. The strategic objective of reducing poverty in the subregion calls for going beyond the compartmentalized departments created by sectoral social policy, frequently the source of duplicated efforts and wasted resources, because both the causes and expressions of poverty are multidimensional. At the same time, it also makes it necessary to integrate social and economic policies, inasmuch as the longed-for economic recovery or advances in trade and financial integration cannot be expected to produce benefits spontaneously for the mass of the population. Those benefits must often be sought explicitly.

To conclude, it is important here to firmly establish a basic criterion with regard to Community strategy on any subject, but particularly a social development strategy. This criterion is that, according to the principle of subsidiarity, Community bodies should intervene only when the objectives sought can be better achieved through Community interventions than through national actions. As established in Decision 553, the activities considered in the IPSD strategy and presented in this proposal, consist only of activities that can be coordinated or executed as a Community and that, as a result, are able to contribute a significant value-added to national policies.

Thus understood, a Community social strategy and an IPSD can represent, even so, an important field of action and one of growing relevance within the integration process. By way of illustration, the benefits of Community-coordinated action in this sphere could include: deepening subregional integration by adding to its areas of action; democratizing that integration by making it more important to broader population sectors; contributing to the stability of national social policies by making them a part of Community social strategy; making a wider range of experiences available to social policy-makers; increasing the Member Countries’ power of negotiation in international forums and to obtain cooperation resources for social development; and increasing the social capital to be gained from the establishment of subregional cooperation networks.

Although social policy is formulated according to parameters that are predominantly national, there is a broad space for Community action. By putting into practice the Presidents’ decision to launch a Community strategy for fighting poverty, exclusion and social inequality, the Integral Plan for Social Development will help fulfill the purpose for which the Andean countries agreed to integrate: “ (to bring) about an enduring improvement in the standard of living of the subregion’s population.” ⁵

1 Cartagena Agreement, Articles 121, 144 and 148 d).

2 Such as, for example, the International Humanitarian Fund.

3 Thirteenth Meeting of the Andean Council of Presidents, Elementos a ser considerados en la elaboración del Plan Integrado de Desarrollo Social Andino. Proposal of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, p. 4.

4 The concept of “missions” developed by the Venezuelan government, which integrates sectoral policies in order to achieve a given strategic objective (literacy, health care, etc.), is an interesting recent experience in that connection.

5 Cartagena Agreement, Chapter I “Objectives and Mechanisms,” Art. 1.