Event Highlights: In Search for Equity and Inclusion in Latin America
“Colombia – preserving Afro-Colombian Culture through song” © UN Women/Ryan Brown
On Monday, July 27, Kevin Gallagher and Janine Ferretti from BU’s Global Development Policy Center joined us for a discussion on the COVID-19 crisis in Latin America and its disproportionate affects on indigenous people and Afro-descendants. The pandemic, they argued, has laid bare the deep fault lines of inequality around the world. In Latin America, COVID-19 is exacerbating many of the historic inequalities and the social exclusion experienced by indigenous peoples and Afro-descendant communities since the colonial era. As some of the most vulnerable groups in Latin American society, there is a great risk that the long-term consequences of the pandemic will further entrench their socio-economic marginalization. For some indigenous communities, the pandemic could presents an existential threat. At the same time, the crisis presents an opportunity for the international community, national governments, and the private sector to restructure their social contracts with these vulnerable groups, not only to correct the legacy of inequality and exclusion, but also to build resilience in vulnerable communities. If we can “build back better,” Gallagher added, we can create economies that are more socially inclusive and more resilient not only to global pandemics but also to climate change.
Kevin Gallagher is Professor of Global Development Policy and Director of the Global Development Policy Center at Boston University. He is the author or co-author of six books including The China Triangle: Latin America’s China Boom and the Fate of the Washington Consensus. Janine Ferretti is Professor of the Practice of Global Development Policy at Boston University. Her interests are those issues found in the interface of international development and environment with a particular focus on strategies for advancing solutions to key global and regional challenges.