Latin American Overview

My takeaway from the second half of the document was that focus on improving levels of civilian oversight of municipalities and government transparency, which I agree with my peers would be a massive plus for South America.

Something that interested me in today's article is the part on economic integration and how it seems to focus on infrastructure along economic development and partnership within the region. With this focus on building Central America by their power instead of relying on economic aid from China would be interesting to see. With the focus on internal development and away from relying on China's massive shipping network it may lead to another pole of power away from China inwhich the world can interact.

I was encouraged by the section on Gender Equality and Diversity (SDG 5). The DEO noted that gender equality is crucial to economic development, which is a concept that is not usually discussed enough. The empowerment of women, specifically in the workplace, is a powerful force that can better society as a whole. This is an area that Russia could immensely improve upon. Russia is trying to increase its economic power, but I believe that it will not be as strong as they could as long as women are sidelined.

The second portion of the DEO Chapter mentioned the importance of institutional capacity and rule of law. The IDB argues that "the COVID-19 pandemic requires strong, coordinated actions from across a range of institutions as well as citizen trust to comply with the measures needed to address the crisis." I noticed that Brazil's handling of the pandemic has been problematic as a result of this. President Bolsonaro has run through 3 health experts since the start of the pandemic and is now transitioning into his 4th one. In addition to this, his beliefs around COVID have caused an uproar. His criticism and refusal to close Brazillian beaches reveal a lack of coordinated actions to mitigate the spread of COVID. As a result of his handling of the virus, his approval ratings are low, and the vaccination efforts have been undermined.

It’s nice to see a section discussing climate change and environmental sustainability in Latin America. Although the reading talks about the increase in climate change mitigation and adaption efforts between 2016 to 2019, COVID-19 has had a large part in slowing down these efforts. The reading also talks about the IDB Group’s focus on other “urgent priorities” and building back from COVID-19. However, I do think a lot of these climate change mitigation and adaption strategies can be leveraged in the post-covid environment. In fact, I’ll attach the link to an article that articulates fairly well the case for a green recovery in Latin America post-covid.

One notable point from the article is that “There is, however, a growing realization that a return to the status quo will not be enough, and momentum is building towards the idea of “building back better.” I would implore anyone interested to take a look. I also think what this means for future investments should be noted and what a green recovery would look like in terms of trading opportunities (particularly with Europe, especially with the MERCOSUR trade deal with the EU still pending due to environmental stipulations).

https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/latamcaribbean/2020/09/01/the-case-for-a-green-recovery-in-post-covid-latin-america/

I like that there was talk about gender equality and diversity in today's reading. I think that it is so important for us to focus on equality for people of different sexual orientations, backgrounds, ethnicities, etc. It is also extremely important for us to pay attention to the way Covid-19 is affecting the female population. "This work is even more critical now as the economic downturn cause by COVID-19 has had disproportionate impact on women in terms of lost income from predominantly service and informal sector jobs, increased unpaid care work, and rising gender based violence."

In the second half of the DEO chapter, it was again good to see an emphasis on civilian participation and an improved culture of compliance. The bank's goal of increasing transparency and compliance with treaties is only aided by increasing the amount of civilian oversight of regional municipalities. I think increasing civilian oversight is a great way to increase compliance through monitoring leader's decisions.

Today’s article on the Development Effectiveness Overview was insightful. While the sustainable development goals were listed to reveal growth, I was wondering what the difference was in prior years in comparison to 2020. I also wondered why there is a big push for environmental conservation if we are focusing on economic development. I noticed that second and third world countries are often pushed to uphold conservation efforts at the expense of their own economic development. While international and domestic aid helps to combat the goals listed in the document, it still would be preferable for these countries to develop their own forms of aid without having to worry about conservation efforts.

I like that there is an emphasis on social inclusion and equality. Both inclusion and equality are important for development and economic growth. Nowadays, it is especially important nowadays to make sure that everyone has access to the COVID-19 vaccine and to have easy access to health care.

Reading the first few pages of the Inter-American Development Bank's report, , I was interested to see the call to action on clean energy, which I think would be beneficial for the region. Venezuela, for all of its other socioeconomic issues, would benefit from an economy rebuilt around something other than the oil industry.

Based on the first chapter of the IDB's efficacy report, there seems to be a lot of similarities between the IDB's and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank's goals. Infrastructure/ innovation, economic growth, and clean energy are all goals shared by both of the bank's missions. The integration of regional economies in both Latin American and Asia could provide a better standard of living and I think these banks can, when instituted democratically and with clear objectives, do some great things for regional people's.