Latin America

Despite political and economic reforms, Latin America remains the most unequal region in the world. Deep-rooted poverty is a persistent challenge, while the quality of democratic governance and accountability is uneven and problematic across the region. On a daily basis, Latin American policy-makers have to make vital decisions on wide range of key global issues such as: social policy development; insecurity; climate change; food price rises and the possible impact of biofuels; remittances and migration, AIDS; and the challenges posed by the drug trade.

Our work on Latin America assists policy-makers, donors, and civil society, in resolving these issues. We look at what can be learnt from Latin America's successes and failures over the past few decades to help poverty alleviation efforts in the rest of the developing world. All of this work builds on our strong track record in Latin America. Over recent years, we have been working to:

• strengthen partnerships with policy research institutions and donors (through the Evidence based Policy in Development Network - EBPDN);
• implement and contribute to action research programmes (for example Trade and Poverty in Latin America programme (COPLA) and the EUROsociAL Regional Programme for social cohesion in Latin America);
• conduct governance assessments and other forms of institutional analysis; and
• promote regional debate (EBPDN).

Our strategy for the region is based on three pillars: strengthening networks, policy relevant research and knowledge sharing. Our work on Latin America draws on research taking place in all of ODI's many programmes.