Inter-American Development Bank
facebook
twitter
youtube
linkedin
instagram
Abierto al públicoBeyond BordersCaribbean Development TrendsCiudades SosteniblesEnergía para el FuturoEnfoque EducaciónFactor TrabajoGente SaludableGestión fiscalGobernarteIdeas MatterIdeas que CuentanIdeaçãoImpactoIndustrias CreativasLa Maleta AbiertaMoviliblogMás Allá de las FronterasNegocios SosteniblesPrimeros PasosPuntos sobre la iSeguridad CiudadanaSostenibilidadVolvamos a la fuente¿Y si hablamos de igualdad?Home
Citizen Security and Justice Creative Industries Development Effectiveness Early Childhood Development Education Energy Envirnment. Climate Change and Safeguards Fiscal policy and management Gender and Diversity Health Labor and pensions Open Knowledge Public management Science, Technology and Innovation  Trade and Regional Integration Urban Development and Housing Water and Sanitation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

¿Y si hablamos de igualdad?

  • HOME
  • CATEGORIES
    • Diversity
    • Gender
  • Authors
  • English
    • Español
Afro-descendientes covid-19

Resilience and inclusive equitable recovery

April 30, 2021 Por Judith Morrison Leave a Comment


Afro-descendants in Latin America

COVID-19 has been a blow to Latin-America and the Caribbean. But, for the 100-150 million African descendants in the region, that represent 20-30% of the population, the impact has been particularly grave. African descendants have been disproportionately impacted due to inequalities in labor market access, education, and health services. The full extent of COVID-19 is still being discovered, however looking into the future, it is critical that throughout the recovery process, policies address these inequalities, and take under consideration the impact of the crisis on African descendants to ensure that the recovery is equitable for all.

Structural inequality

Even before COVID-19, African descendants faced substantially higher rates of poverty than non-African descendants across the region.[i] Additionally, despite impressive reductions in poverty across the region in the start of the 2000s, poverty rates in many countries fell more quickly for those who were not of African or indigenous decent. Another important factor is that African descendants experience higher levels of labor market informality. This makes poverty reduction programs through cash transfers less effective for them in places such as Brazil and Uruguay.[ii], and it limits access to pensions and unemployment insurance among the population.

Inequalities in the labor market however go far beyond poverty levels and levels of formality. Although labor force participation rates are similar across gender and race in most Latin American countries, African descendants face higher rates of unemployment than the general population. This is particularly true for African descendant women.[iii] Gender and racial inequalities are not only evident in unemployment rates, but also in the types and quality of jobs available to African descendants and African descendant women in particular. Recent studies have found that there are few African descendant women in senior management positions. In fact, they only represent 10% of these positions in the Caribbean.[iv] Similarly, despite representing a majority of the population, Afro-Brazilians only accounted for 25.9% of supervisors and 6.3% of managers among Brazil’s 500 largest firms. [v] Instead, African descendants are overrepresented within more vulnerable employment sectors. Between 65 and 80% of Afro-Descendant women in Brazil, Costa Rica, and Ecuador work as manual laborers, positions that are often highly informal and have high turnover rates.[vi] These differences in employment opportunities have made a great difference in the impact of stay-at-home measures implemented by governments in the region. For instance, while stay-at-home- measures resulted in a flattening of the curve in COVID-19 cases for the white population in Brazil, Afro-Brazilians continued to see rates climb despite these measures.[vii]

Educational gap

Another particularly concerning inequality for COVID-19 responses are racial inequalities in educational outcomes and opportunities. Despite important gains in educational attainment and the closing of racial gaps in many countries in the region, gaps in educational level between African descendants and the general population remain in most countries in the region.[viii]  While African descendant women’s educational attainment rates have surpassed those of their male counterparts, with the exception of Peru, gaps remain in most countries and these gains have not translated into equal opportunities in the labor market. This has been true even in cases where African descendant women have become the most educated segment of society.[ix]

As COVID-19 forced many to work from home and students to enter virtual education, inequalities in access to the internet widened existing racial inequalities in the labor market and education. Gaps in access to telecommunications technology are evident across the region.[x] These access gaps are present in access to cellphones, a computer in the home, and access to the internet. Furthermore, in many countries, these racial gaps are worsened by gender gaps with lower levels of access among households headed by African descendant women. Given the nature of COVID-19 and efforts to provide education remotely and opportunities for remote work, racial and gender gaps in access to crucial telecommunications technology may lead to a widening of inequalities between African descendants and the rest of the population in the region.

Given the racial inequalities that are present in our region, as we seek to recover from the impact of COVID-19, policies and responses require specific attention in areas such as:

  • Safety Nets for Vulnerable Populations
    • Address bias. Crisis situations, such as COVID-19, can increase bias and tribalism. It is thus necessary to mitigate this exclusion in a way that ensures that African descendants receive benefits from policy responses and government programs.
    • Design targeted communication campaigns that prioritize equal access to state safety nets for African descendants and build dialogues between the African descendant population and governments.
  • Economic Productivity and Employment
    • Expand direct transfer programs in a manner that protects the incomes of African descendants, particularly those working in the informal sector.
    • Ensure internet access and possibilities for remote work, education, and healthcare for African Descendants and indigenous peoples.
    • Expand courses and access to credit to promote African descendant entrepreneurship and locally designed employment solutions.
    • Harness the emerging dialogue with the private sector to incorporate African descendants in formal sector employment opportunities and corporate procurement strategies.
  • Fiscal Policy to Alleviate Economic Impacts
    • Design targeting mechanisms to guarantee that the populations most vulnerable to COVID‑19 are benefitting.
    • Consider racial and ethnic inequalities when designing government spending and taxation programs.
    • Recognize the vulnerability of informal workers when evaluating existing direct transfer and pension programs and expand extraordinary transfers, non-contributory pensions, and subsidies to improve coverage for African descendants.
    • Expand unemployment insurance to target those working in the informal sector.

The COVID-19 recovery process is a unique opportunity to promote equitable recovery that addresses long-standing socio-economic gaps. The emergency aspects of the recovery have passed, and policy makers are looking at longer-term aspects of recovery. This is precisely the moment to reflect on how to ensure that the policies that we put in place now take advantage of important gains and do not exclude vulnerable groups.

How do you think that policymakers in the region can take advantage of opportunities to make this recovery as sustainable and resilient as possible? Do you see regional, ethnic, urban vs. rural gaps that could put this recovery at risk? What needs to be done to better incorporate the needs of indigenous peoples and African descendants in policy discussions and reforms?


[i] World Bank. 2020. LAC Equity Lab. Washington, DC: World Bank. One notable exception is in Panama, where poverty rates are lower among Afro-descendants than the population as a whole. It is important to note that part of the reason for this difference is the substantially higher level of poverty faced by the country’s indigenous peoples, who represent approximately 12.3% of the population and saw a moderate poverty rate of 54% in 2015.
[ii] Lustig, Nora, Judith Morrison, and Adam Ratzlaff, 2019. Splitting the Bill: Taxing and Spending to Close Ethnic and Racial Gaps in Latin America. Washington, DC: Inter-American Development Bank.
[iii] Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). 2020. Database of Harmonized Household Surveys. Washington, DC: World Bank.
[iv] International Labour Organisation (ILO). 2018. Women in business and management: Gaining momentum in the Caribbean. Geneva, Switzerland: International Labour Organisation.
[v] Inter-American Development Bank and Instituto Ethos. 2016. Social, Racial and Gender Profile of the 500 Largest Brazilian Companies. São Paulo, Brazil: Inter-American Development Bank and Instituto Ethos.
[vi] Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). 2018. Mujeres afrodescendientes en América Latina y el Caribe: Deudas de igualdad. Santiago, Chile: United Nations.
[vii] IDB calculations based on Brazilian Ministry of Health. 2020. Vigilância de Síndrome Respiratória Aguda Grave (SRAG) 2020- Banco de Dados de Síndrome Respiratória Aguda Grave – incluindo dados da COVID-19. Brasilia, Brazil: Government of Brazil.
[viii] Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). 2020. Database of Harmonized Household Surveys. Washington, DC: World Bank.
[ix] Insituto Nacional de Estadística y Censo. 2017. Encuesta de Hogares de Propósitos Múltiples. Panama City, Panama: Government of Panama; Morrison, Judith. 2019. “Hidden Figures.” ¿Y Si Hablamos de Igualdad? Washington, DC: Inter-American Development Bank.
[x] Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). 2020. Database of Harmonized Household Surveys. Washington, DC: World Bank.

Filed Under: Diversity Tagged With: Afrodescendants, COVID-19, Education, Inequality, Labor Markets

Judith Morrison

Operations Senior Advisor of the Office of the Special Advisor Gender and Diversity at the IDB. She has over 20 years of international development experience and previously served as a Regional Director at the Inter-American Foundation, Program Director at the Inter-American Dialogue, and Executive Director at the Inter-Agency Consultation on Race in Latin America (IAC). Her work focuses on the best approaches to reach poor and vulnerable communities in Latin America, with an emphasis on the economic development of indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples. She has extensive experience brokering investments with the private sector and communities throughout Latin America and developed the first private-sector eco-development fund in Brazil. She holds a master’s degree in poverty alleviation and income distribution from MIT where she received the Carroll Wilson Award for international research and received a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship.

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Follow Us

Subscribe

Search

Related posts

  • Closing Racial Gaps in Employment in Latin America
  • Racial Inequality in Education: Challenges and Pathways for Afro-descendant Youth in Latin America
  • A Call to Close Racial and Ethnic Gaps
  • Exposure and Inequalities: African Descendants During COVID-19
  • Hidden figures

Tags

accesibility Afrodescendants afrodescendientes Coronavirus COVID-19 COVID-19 cuidados Data discriminación diversity Education Employment Entrepreneurship female leadership Gender gender-based violence Gender Equality gender equity Gender gaps igualdad de género Inclusion inclusión Indigeneous economic development Indigenous economic development Indigenous identity Indigenous People Indigenous peoples Inequality integrated care systems Intimate Partner Violence Labor Markets lgbtq+ liderazgo femenino oportunidades económicas people with disabilities personas con discapacidad pueblos indígenas Tecnologías de la Información y Comunicación Unpaid labor Vaccines Violence against women violencia contra la mujer Violencia de género violencia sexual y basada en género Women in STEM

Footer

Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo
facebook
twitter
youtube
youtube
youtube

Google Analytics

    Blog posts written by Bank employees:

    Copyright © Inter-American Development Bank ("IDB"). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons IGO 3.0 Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives. (CC-IGO 3.0 BY-NC-ND) license and may be reproduced with attribution to the IDB and for any non-commercial purpose. No derivative work is allowed. Any dispute related to the use of the works of the IDB that cannot be settled amicably shall be submitted to arbitration pursuant to the UNCITRAL rules. The use of the IDB's name for any purpose other than for attribution, and the use of IDB's logo shall be subject to a separate written license agreement between the IDB and the user and is not authorized as part of this CC- IGO license. Note that link provided above includes additional terms and conditions of the license.


    For blogs written by external parties:

    For questions concerning copyright for authors that are not IADB employees please complete the contact form for this blog.

    The opinions expressed in this blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the IDB, its Board of Directors, or the countries they represent.

    Attribution: in addition to giving attribution to the respective author and copyright owner, as appropriate, we would appreciate if you could include a link that remits back the IDB Blogs website.



    Privacy Policy

    Derechos de autor © 2025 · Magazine Pro en Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

    Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo

    Aviso Legal

    Las opiniones expresadas en estos blogs son las de los autores y no necesariamente reflejan las opiniones del Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo, sus directivas, la Asamblea de Gobernadores o sus países miembros.

    facebook
    twitter
    youtube
    This site uses cookies to optimize functionality and give you the best possible experience. If you continue to navigate this website beyond this page, cookies will be placed on your browser.
    To learn more about cookies, click here
    x
    Manage consent

    Privacy Overview

    This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
    Necessary
    Always Enabled
    Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
    Non-necessary
    Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
    SAVE & ACCEPT