Over the last three years, the media in Latin America has been offered a rich harvest of scandal. Brazil's Lava Jato affair, involving the diversion of money from contracts at the state-run oil company to personal and party coffers, has led to more than 200 arrests and 80 convictions. A Guatemalan president and vice-president were driven from office over a multi-million dollar … [Read more...] about Bringing Order to the Fight Against Urban Corruption
#Brazil
Falling Inequality: A Brazilian Whodunnit
By Julián Messina, Francisco H.G. Ferreira and Sergio Firpo Long one of the world’s most unequal countries, Brazil surprised pundits by recording a massive reduction in household income inequality in the last couple of decades. Between 1995 and 2012, the country’s Gini coefficient for household incomes fell by seven points, from 0.59 to 0.52. (For comparison, all of the … [Read more...] about Falling Inequality: A Brazilian Whodunnit
Stepping in to Save Women’s and Babies’ Lives
The decision to give birth in one's village rather than a health facility is often a fatal one for women in Latin America. Too many women die in the time immediately before and after delivery from hemorrhages, hypertension and sepsis, conditions easily treated in a modern health facility. Their babies often die with them or in the week following. Yet, culture and poverty can … [Read more...] about Stepping in to Save Women’s and Babies’ Lives
How to Keep Kids in School
By Marina Bassi and Matias Busso Each year tens of thousands of young Latin Americans drop out of school to take low-skilled jobs. The low-level of graduation, with less than 50% of 24-year-olds having completed secondary school, is not only a stumbling block for individuals destined to lives of menial labor. It is a drag on the region's ability to innovate, generate … [Read more...] about How to Keep Kids in School