Opening Statement Chairman Eliot L. Engel
House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere
Poverty and Inequality in the Americas:
The Unaddressed Problem
Wednesday, March 28, 2007, 3:00 p.m.
I am pleased to welcome you to this afternoon's hearing on poverty and inequality in the Americas. I would like to start off by reading a quote to you by a U.S. President regarding poverty in Latin America. The President said, "Throughout Latin America - a continent rich in resources and in the spiritual and cultural achievements of its people - millions of men and women suffer the daily degradations of hunger and poverty. They lack decent shelter or protection from disease. Their children are deprived of the education or the jobs which are the gateway to a better life."
You might think that this was President Bush on his recent trip to Latin America. But it was actually President John F. Kennedy on March 13, 1961 as he launched the Alliance for Progress. 46 years later - just before his trip to the region - President Bush proclaimed that "the working poor of Latin America need change, and the United States of America is committed to that change."
It is time for us to stop talking about poverty and to start taking concrete actions to improve the lives of the impoverished masses in our own neighborhood.
Latin America continues to have a higher level of income inequality than any other region in the world. In 2005, almost 40% of the region's population - 209 million people - were living in poverty. While Chile and Uruguay have made significant strides in reducing poverty, there are still a number of countries where over half of the population lives in poverty. Nearly three-quarters of Hondurans live in poverty as do over 60% of Bolivians and Paraguayans. Just 600 miles off the coast of Florida in Haiti, an estimated 78% of the population lives on less than $2 a day.
While Latin America is on track to meet a number of the U.N. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), it lags behind in reaching the goal of halving the 1990 level of poverty by 2015.
I would be remiss not to mention that poverty in Latin America disproportionately affects Afro-Latinos and indigenous people. Take Colombia, for example. Some 80% of Afro-Colombians live in conditions of extreme poverty and 74% of Afro-Colombians earn less than the minimum wage. Chocó, the department with the highest percentage of Afro-Colombians, has the lowest per-capita level of government investment in health, education and infrastructure.
The situation is no better for indigenous people in the hemisphere. Across Latin America, indigenous people, particularly women and children, have less access to quality healthcare than the general population. The average infant mortality rate among indigenous children is 60% higher than among non-indigenous populations. Indigenous children also exhibit high levels of malnutrition and stunted growth.
During President Bush's recent trip to Latin America, he recommitted the United States to work hand in hand with our neighbors in addressing the social agenda. Prior to his trip to the region, the President said that the U.S. goal for the Americas is one "where opportunity reaches into every village and every home."
I truly commend the President for making this commitment. But we must also put our money where our mouth is. As I have said before at Subcommittee hearings, I am seriously concerned about reductions in assistance to the Western Hemisphere in the President's 2008 budget including a $70 million reduction in development assistance and a $36 million reduction in funding for child survival and health programs. These cuts certainly are no way to ensure that "opportunity reaches into every village and every home."
I hope that we can use today's hearing to think creatively about how we can reduce poverty and inequality in the hemisphere. In the 109th Congress, my predecessor - then Subcommittee Ranking Member Bob Menendez - introduced the Social Investment and Economic Development Fund for the Americas Act intended to reduce poverty and create economic opportunity in the Western Hemisphere. I and members of the Subcommittee plan to work closely with now Senator Menendez in bringing back this legislation.
But aid alone is not enough. We must also look to find opportunities for free and fair trade with our neighbors. As we pursue trade policies, we should incorporate social responsibility into agreements so that big business treats their employees and the environment with respect. We must also look to quickly extend preference arrangements like the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act (ATPDEA) which has created hundreds of thousands of jobs in the Andean region and is set to expire in June.
Finally, I think it is important to note that what is driving both legal and illegal immigration to the US is poverty - in particular, the need for jobs in countries south of the border. To seriously deal with immigration, the United States can no longer be the job market for Latin America and that means we must substantively address poverty in the hemisphere.
I would like to close with a quote from an unlikely source, none other than Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Commenting on President Bush's recent trip to the Americas, Chavez said of the President, "He thinks he is Columbus, discovering poverty after seven years in power." Chavez meant it as a criticism, but I think he really gave President Bush a back-handed compliment. As I see it, the United States is finally moving beyond the two issues, trade and drugs, which have dominated our policy. We're finally seeing that an agenda to lift the impoverished, left behind in Latin America is just as important. And, that's an important step forward. This Subcommittee is ready to work closely with the Administration in finding innovative ways to reduce poverty in Latin America.
I now would like to introduce our distinguished witnesses. Nancy Birdsall is the founding president of the Center for Global Development and a former executive vice president at the Inter-American Development Bank. Joy Olson is the executive director of the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) and previously served as Director of the Latin America Working Group (LAWG). And finally, Ben Powell is the co-founder and managing partner of Agora Partnerships, a US non-profit dedicated to helping entrepreneurs create jobs in Central America.
Thank you very much. I am now pleased to call on Ranking Member Burton for his opening statement.
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