The International Labor Organization, ILO; presented this week a new report on the security and sustainability conditions of populations in low- and middle-income countries.
According to the document, the governments of these countries, They must increase spending by an additional US$1.4 trillion to provide basic social protection for all citizens.
This additional resource represents a deficit of up to 52.3% of annual GDP in low-income countries, according to calculations in the ILO report.
When segmented by region, Africa is the one that registers the largest deficit to cover these basic needs, with a figure that reaches 17.6% of GDP. They are followed by low- and middle-income countries in the Arab States (11.4%); Latin America and the Caribbean (2.7%), Asia and the Pacific (2%) and Europe and Central Asia (1.9%).
Now, it is important to take a look at Latin America, where there are countries that are above the regional average, as may be the case of Haiti (45.5%); Venezuela (17.7%) and Honduras (12.8%).
In the case of Colombia, the country registers a deficit of 4% to cover the financing of social protection. This record, according to the comparative table, is above levels of peers such as Mexico (1.9%); Argentina (2.7%) or Ecuador (2.8%), but it is below cases such as Peru (4.4%); Bolivia (4.8%) or Guatemala (6.4%).
“International climate finance can help strengthen and adapt social protection systems in low- and middle-income countries“said the ILO document as a conclusion and solutions to this problem.
