Do Our Children Have a Chance? A Human Opportunity Report for Latin America and the Caribbean

Abstract

This book reports on the status and
 evolution of human opportunity in Latin America and the
 Caribbean (LAC). It builds on the 2008 publication in
 several directions. First, it uses newly available data to
 expand the set of opportunities and personal circumstances
 under analysis. The data are representative of about 200
 million children living in 19 countries over the last 15
 years. Second, it compares human opportunity in LAC with
 that of developed countries, among them the United States
 and France, two very different models of social policy. This
 allows for illuminating exercises in benchmarking and
 extrapolation. Third, it looks at human opportunity within
 countries, across regions, states, and cities. This gives us
 a preliminary glimpse at the geographic dimension of equity,
 and at the role that different federal structures play. The
 overall message that emerges is one of cautious hope. LAC is
 making progress in opening the doors of development to all,
 but it still has a long way to go. At the current pace, it
 would take, on average, a generation for the region to
 achieve universal access to just the basic services that
 make for human opportunity. Seen from the viewpoint of
 equity, even our most successful nations lag far behind the
 developed world, and intracounty regional disparities are
 large and barely converging. Fortunately, there is much
 policy makers can do about it.