LatAm needs to step up fight against poverty as economies slow: UN agency

As Latin American economies slow down, governments need to make more efforts against poverty, the Santiago-based UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) said Monday.

The agency's recommendation is based on its new study on inclusive social development which will be presented at the three-day Regional Conference on Social Development in Latin America and the Caribbean in Lima, Peru, on Monday.

The study highlights the importance of creating productive and decent jobs, since wage income represents 80 percent of total household income on average in the region, said ECLAC.

The organization acknowledged that the region has in the past decade made notable progress in diverse areas of social development, but much more remains to be done.

More than half of the population of Latin America and the Caribbean lives "in situations of indigence, poverty or vulnerability to poverty," said the ECLAC.

Countries in the region must make "significant efforts ... to comply with the recently adopted Sustainable Development Goals, especially the first one, which aims to eradicate extreme poverty in all its forms by 2030," the agency said. Endi