Communication for social change

World Bank classifies Latin America in the lower middle and upper middle income range. An estimated 181 million individuals (33.2 percent of the population) live in poverty and seventy-one million of these (12.9 percent) in indigence.[11] Between 2002 and 2008, forty-one million people were able to sustain enough progress to no longer be characterized as poverty but with the current Global recession, this number has decreased by nine million.[11] Ten of the 15 countries with the highest levels of inequality are in the region. Women, indigenous populations and those of African descent are most affected. Females in the region take a greater part in the informal economy and have double the workload than males but are paid less for their efforts. When compared to those of European descent, twice as many members of indigenous and African descended populations, on average, live on US$1 per day.[10] Latin America still faces corrupt political, judicial, and security institutions protective of the interests of the wealthy. The second edition of the Global Burden of Armed Violence report by the Secretariat of the Geneva Declaration on Armed Violence and Development, released in October 2011, characterized El Salvador as being the "most violent country in the world" during 2004–9, with an average annual violent death rate of over 60 per 100,000 people during that period, just ahead of Iraq.[12] During the first week of November (2011), Manuel Melgar (the justice and public security minister of El Salvador) resigned from his post. The region overall is second to South Africa in terms of levels of crime and violence.[13] Educational practices are also being questioned across the region. Chile has been experiencing five months of protests against the government's attempt to maintain the higher education's private sector model. Students and teachers in opposition hope to revert to a state funded model, under an "Education for All" slogan in fear of emerging from universities with debts and loans. These street demonstrations, now catching congress' attention, are a threat to Chiles' 2012 budget. Without the proposed spending, potential education, health, training and anti-poverty programs will cease.[14] In Latin America, risks of inflation and excessive currency appreciation are a concern to the region's long-term growth prospects and present instability in the financial sector. Current events such as the European debt crisis, the slow recovery in the US, natural and nuclear disasters in Japan and the implications from the political turmoil in the Middle East stall progress within the region and foreshadow more difficult economic conditions.[15]

Growth in Latin America – not including the Caribbean region – is expected to average between 3.5 and 4.5 percent of GDP in 2011 (better than economic activity in some developed nations). Progress is attributed to current macroeconomic management, a constant domestic demand, commodity export boom, and the commodity increase in prices which have spurred investments in mining and energy. Unemployment rates have dropped down to seven percent and current results are better than in most North American areas and some wealthier European nations. In the fiscal year 2011, World Bank Group has produced $14.7 billion in funding for the region. Contributions have been made by International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), the International Development Association (IDA), the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA). Most of the funding was devoted to health, social, transportation, and public administration services. Countries that received the most financial help were Mexico ($2.7 billion), Brazil ($2.5 billion), and Argentina ($2.2 billion).[15] Funding stimulates development which in turn promotes investment as the current case in Latin America. UN's Economic Commission for Latin America (Eclac) calculated that foreign direct investment (FDI) in 18 Latin American and Caribbean countries totaled to US$82.65bn in the first half of 2011 (up 54% compared to the same period during 2010). These numbers are on the path to be a new historic record in 2011.[14]

Countries with highest FDI increase

1. Brazil – Received US$44bn in FDI in the first six months of 2011 (an increase of 157% from the same 2010 period).
2. Colombia – FDI jumped 91%, to nearly US$7bn (more than it received in all of 2010).
3. Venezuela – US$1.18bn in the first half of 2011

Progress in Latin America has also been attributed to higher employment rates. In Colombia alone, 700,000 jobs were created since Juan Carlos Echeverry took up presidency in 2010. The government wants to create 2.5 million additional jobs by the end of 2014.[16] In addition to employment opportunities, efforts to improve education are in progress. In February 2010, the World Bank and Shakira's advocacy group ALAS Foundation launched a joint venture to improve Early Childhood Development for low income children in Latin America. During the first year of the program, more than half a million kids were provided with health care, adequate nutrition and early education.[15]

Thirty-five percent of Belize's population is under the age of fourteen. The country has the highest HIV prevalence in Central America and the third-highest in the Caribbean after the Bahamas and Haiti, according to a 2007 study. UNAIDS estimates some 3,600 people are currently living with HIV in Belize, 2,000 of which are women. As of December 2010, UNDP began implementing an HIV/AIDS grant agreement designed by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, & Malaria. The program aims to halt the spread of HIV in Belize by educating young people aged 15–24 about implications, prevention and treatment. Global Fund and UNDP are also providing access to condoms, subsidized referrals, testing, anti-retroviral drugs free of cost at all treatment points, psychosocial support to people living with HIV, and specialized training to professional service providers.[17]

Over the last 20 years Mexico experienced a number of reforms to increase representation of indigenous peoples (13 percent of the country's total population) in order to ensure their participation in decision-making. The Mexican Government approved 28 indigenous territorial boundaries and electoral districts which have been highlighted in the documentary Indigenous Identity and Democracy in Mexico. UNDP is currently working with the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation Development (AECID) to have government and indigenous groups from Bolivia and Mexico share experiences in electoral and political participation.[18]

The region has also incurred technological advances to combat climate change. The Global Environment Facility of UNDP in collaboration with the Brazilian Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME), Empresa Metropolitana de Transportes Urbanos de São Paulo (EMTU/SP) while financed with resources from the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) and Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos (FINEP) were able to create the first hydrogen-powered bus in Latin America. The Brazilian Hydrogen-Cell-Fueled Bus project announced the finished product on July 1 of 2010.[19] The city of São Paulo, Brazil, with eighteen million inhabitants, now has a hydrogen-powered bus fueled by water that exudes clean vapor instead of fumes and carbon dioxide. The bus can carry 63 passengers and with hydrogen alone can run up to 300 km.[20]