Brazil is to provide free medicines for everyone suffering from high blood pressure or diabetes. The drugs will be distributed as of next month through a nationwide network of budget pharmacies, where many medicines are already heavily subsidised.
Three of every ten Argentines fall below the poverty line, 30.9% of the population, Ecolatina consultants said and they warned that “if prices continue to increase, it will be difficult for poor people’s income to beat inflation.”
Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia and Venezuela are the countries which most reduced inequality and poverty during the last decade in Latinamerica, according to Alicia Bárcena, executive secretary from the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, Cepal.
A recent study shows Chileans’ low sensitivity to one of the nation’s biggest problems—poverty. Despite that 58.8% of Chileans say they believe poverty to be one of the country’s biggest problems only 15.3% say they feel responsible for the low quality of life of those who have limited resources.
Agriculture in Latin America and the Caribbean has had a dynamic development growth during this decade but it has not been sufficient to reduce rural poverty in the region according to a report from FAO and the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, Cepal.
The poverty rate in the United States rose for the third straight year, reading 14.3% in 2009 (one in seven), up from 13.2% a year earlier. More than 43 million people are living in poverty and almost 51 million have no health insurance coverage.
A survey carried out in December 2009 found that Chile has 634,328 people (3.7% of the population) living in extreme poverty. Since 2006 this percentage has gone up by 0.5%, the first increase since 1990. Those affected are mainly in rural areas.
The numbers are startling: two and a half million Chileans are currently living below the poverty line, according to a new study by the Caracterización Socioeconómica Nacional (CASEN) 2009.
The United Nations Secretary-General said Wednesday that despite the international food, fuel and financial crises, there has been progress toward meeting the Millennium Development Goals, or MDGs, of cutting extreme poverty in half by 2015.
Brazilian president Lula da Silva thanked the United Nations for the two prizes awarded for his leadership in fighting hunger and poverty with a strong speech condemning rich countries, global speculation and “capitalist myopia”.