Global asymmetries influence policies for recovery in Latin America and the Caribbean. Nearly 30 years after the Earth Summit and the global adoption of an international development agenda in practical terms the environmental pillar of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development has not been taken into consideration in recovery policies in the region. This has created major problems in terms of the medium- and long-term direction of regional economies. On balance recovery measures —which have focused on maintaining consumption or offsetting falls in it— have weakened non-health public services territorial monitoring and social and governmental monitoring functions. Transfers to support consumption strengthen an unsustainable development pattern and recovery measures prolong the anchoring to an approach that results in high vulnerability to environmental impacts with unchanged or increased dependence on fossil fuels. The region is squandering the opportunity to use the recovery effort to enhance production and consumption patterns and improve the quality and coverage of public services which the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has shown to be very important. This Special Report is the thirteenth in a series prepared by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) on the evolution and impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in Latin America and the Caribbean.

This Special Report examines the economic and social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic more than a year after it first appeared providing new growth projections for the region’s countries. The document entitled The recovery paradox in Latin America and the Caribbean. Growth amid persisting structural problems: inequality poverty and low investment and productivity analyzes the performance of the region’s main economic and social indicators and presents policy proposals for achieving a transformative recovery based on the forging of a new development pattern.

The crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has had a negative impact on employment and labor conditions for women in Latin America and the Caribbean generating a setback of more than a decade in terms of the progress achieved in labor market participation. The rate of job market participation by women was at 46% in 2020 while for men it was 69%. It is further estimated that the unemployment rate for women reached 12% in 2020 a percentage that rises to 22.2% if we factor in women’s participation in the labor force in 2019. In 2020 there was a mass exodus of women from the labor force who have not returned to search for employment having to attend to care demands at home. 56.9% of women in Latin America and 54.3% in the Caribbean are employed in sectors where the pandemic is expected to have a higher negative impact in terms of employment and income. The women of the region are a crucial part of the frontline response to the pandemic. Some 73.2% of people employed in the health sector are women who have had to face extreme working conditions such as long work days in addition to increased risk of contagion as health personnel. All of this in a regional context in which salary discrimination persists where salaries for women who work in the health sector are 23.7% less than men’s in the same sector. In addition to having a gender perspective that cuts across all recovery policies affirmative actions are required in the areas of fiscal labor productive economic and social policies to protect the rights of women achieved in the past decade prevent setbacks and take on gender inequalities in the short medium and long terms.

This Special Report is the seventh in a series by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) on the evolution and impacts of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic in Latin America and the Caribbean. It examines the key role of digital technologies in the pandemic prompted by the coronavirus and how gaps in access affordability and network speed deepen the inequalities and vulnerabilities of the region’s population. It also analyzes the advances and limitations of digitalization and assesses how digital solutions reduce the impact of measures aimed at containing the virus such as lockdowns and social distancing. Finally the document proposes measures in the area of connectivity and the digital economy for an inclusive reactivation.

This Special Report is the fourth in this series on the evolution and impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in Latin America and the Caribbean. The economic crisis generated by coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is having a major impact on the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean and is hitting a productive and business structure with weaknesses that have been building up for decades. Before the pandemic the region’s production structure already showed great structural heterogeneity that seriously limited its economic development possibilities. The pandemic makes these weaknesses more evident and amplifies economic social and environmental tensions. In the arena of production it is urgent to mitigate capacity destruction without neglecting the need for a sustained increase in productivity the generation of productive linkages and increased learning and the generation and dissemination of innovations. In this context manufacturing is of strategic importance and must play a leading role in the growth process and in changing the productive matrix. This requires policies to change the production structure. In other words incentives other than those that currently prevail for private companies together with the State to make the necessary investments to diversify the economic structure ensure a continuous and stable growth process and avoid social and environmental setbacks.

This Special Report is the sixth in a series by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) on the evolution and impacts of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic in Latin America and the Caribbean. It includes estimates regarding the pandemic’s impact on exports imports transportation and logistics in the region’s countries. The COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak occurred in a context of sluggish global trade that has been dragging on since the 2008–2009 financial crisis. The rapid spread of COVID-19 (coronavirus) and the measures taken by governments to contain it have had serious consequences for the world’s major economies. Many productive activities have been disrupted first in Asia and then in Europe North America and the rest of the world and there have been widespread border closures. This has resulted in a steep rise in unemployment especially in the United States with a consequent reduction in demand for goods and services. Against this backdrop global GDP in 2020 is expected to register its sharpest contraction since the Second World War. In this situation the volume of global trade in goods fell by 17.7% in May 2020 compared with the same month in 2019 The drop in the first five months of the year was widespread although it particularly affected exports from the United States Japan and the European Union. The economic contraction in China was smaller than the global average as that country controlled the outbreak and reopened its economy relatively quickly. Latin America and the Caribbean is the most affected developing region. In a global context of increased production regionalization regional integration must play a key role in the crisis-recovery strategies in Latin America and the Caribbean. To move forward with regional integration infrastructure and logistics must be included in economic recovery packages. In addition to their sizeable direct contributions to GDP and employment infrastructure and logistics are essential for the production of all goods and services the supply of food and essential services and international trade competitiveness.

This Special Report is the first in a series by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) on the evolution and impacts of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic in Latin America and the Caribbean and will update the economic and social analysis as the relevant information becomes available. The preparation of the Report will be headed by the Executive Secretary of ECLAC Alicia Bárcena with the technical support of the Office of the Deputy Executive Secretary Mario Cimoli and the substantive divisions responsible for the topics addressed as well as the subregional headquarters and country offices of ECLAC.