According to ECLAC estimates, which already consider the monetary transfers that mitigated the economic damages generated by COVID-19, between 2019 and 2020, poverty at the Latin American level increased more in 4 Andean countries (Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Colombia), and in 2 Central American countries (Honduras and El Salvador).

According to ECLAC, in the countries included in this report, the monetary assistance provided in the context of the pandemic contributed to contain a greater increase in poverty.

For years, Latin America has been the most unequal region in the world and the COVID-19 pandemic has only deepened the region's unacceptable position on a planetary scale.

The Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLAC) has estimated that, as a result of the crisis caused by the pandemic, in 2020, extreme poverty in the region reached the highest levels in 20 years and would reach 12.5%, which is equivalent to 8 million more people living in extreme poverty; in general terms, in 2020 the poverty rate would be 33.7%, 22 million more poor people than the previous year, the highest level in 12 years.

The pandemic has highlighted and aggravated the large structural gaps and endemic inequalities that exist in the region and in the countries, whether by economic condition, geographic location, gender, race, age, etc., worsening the living conditions of the population, particularly of the most vulnerable and excluded groups, according to the Foundation.

That is why the FCCR recommends that countries:

To maintain, at least temporarily, emergency cash transfers, in order to continue covering the basic needs of the neediest population, within the framework of the recovery from the pandemic.

To move to a strategic approach to the problems of poverty and exclusion under a rights-based approach, governments should implement the Universal Basic Income, which should be financed through progressive tax policies.