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Essay on Children of Latin America
Nine of the 26 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean have an average income of below $1,000. The World Bank and national governments are undertaking poverty alleviation programs that promote growth with equity that entail three main strategies: fostering general economic growth; implementing specific programs to increase the earnings opportunities of the poor; and implementing special programs targeted at the poor. Attention must be paid to three areas: setting priorities on who is targeted; limiting the leakage of benefits beyond targeted groups; and taking into account administrative costs.
The Bank helps national governments support poverty alleviation programs by doing analytical work and supplying data for the operation design of poverty-focused operations. Most of the needy are usually very young or very old. Establishing priorities again, one strategy could be to concentrate on infants and school-age children, as well as pregnant women and lactating mothers. The rationale for choosing children over adults is that interventions at the early ages will have a higher and more lasting impact, both on life expectancy and improvements in human capital. (Cordova, Efren, 1989) The two major sectors of intervention for poverty alleviation purposes are health, broadly defined, and education.
Thus, specific programs could include nutrition, vaccination, water, sewerage, shelter, primary health care, access to primary education, and training. In Latin America and the Caribbean, on average, 28 of every 1,000 children die before their first birthday and 34 die before reaching age 5. (Petras, J. and M. Morley 1992)Throughout the developing world, infants and children who would have died 20 or 30 years ago from readily preventable diseases, such as diarrhea and measles, survive the vulnerable first five years of life because of improved health care. Between 1965 and 1986 in developing countries overall, there was a 5 percent increase in the number of infants surviving the first year of life......
