The year 2015 marked the conclusion of the United Nations’ Millennium
Development Goals and the beginning of the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development. Foremost among the Sustainable Development Goals is to
end poverty in all its forms everywhere. Another of the SDGs is to promote
sustained, inclusive, and sustainable economic growth, full and productive
employment, and decent work for all.
This book examines the links between economic growth, changing employment
conditions, and the reduction of poverty in Latin America. The research
project that led to this book had its origins in a mid-2013 meeting attended by
the director of UNU-WIDER, Finn Tarp, and Gary Fields, one of the researchers
on this project. At that time, the United Nations’ Millennium Development
Goals were nearing their target date for completion, and the number one
goal—to halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose
income is less than 1 dollar a day—had already been achieved. The new
Post-2015 Development Agenda, since adopted, was under discussion