By Earl Moxam, Senior Gleaner WriterGUADALAJARA, Mexico:
JAMAICA AND other Caribbean and Latin American countries will benefit shortly from a new European Union (EU) sponsored Social Cohesion Programme, worth 30 million Euros.
Dubbed EURO social, the five-year programme is designed to help Latin and Caribbean countries develop and implement social policies aimed at closing the gap between the rich and poor within their societies. The programme will focus primarily on health, education, justice, employment and taxation policies.
Sir Christopher Patten, European Commissioner for External Relations, asserted that there were moral, economic and political reasons to pursue the initiative. Morally, he said, the EU "believes misery and social exclusion are contrary to human dignity and rights". On the economic front, he said social inequality "acts as a break on economic growth, as large sections of society are unable to contribute".
Above all, however, he warned of the danger that "people's faith in democracy will be eroded if they consider that institutional and market reforms have failed to deliver a better quality of life".
INEQUALITIES
In that regard he warned that inequalities in wealth "create a sense of dislocation; they are a potential risk to security, wherever they occur". The EURO social initiative will focus on specific projects and programmes aimed at achieving improvements in the areas and sectors identified.
The programme will be guided by a steering committee, comprised of the European Commission, the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEPAL).
The IADB, according to Patten, will be a key actor in the process.
Enrique Iglasias, President of the IADB, confirmed that some of the funds will be channelled through the bank, while others will go directly to beneficiary governments from the EU.
"The decision on the allocation of resources will depend on the European Union. We will follow that and identify projects for support", Iglasias told The Gleaner. The announcement of the EURO social initiative came on the eve of the Third European Union/ Latin America-Caribbean Summit in Guadalajara Summit.
Fifty-eight countries are attending the two-day summit, which concludes on Saturday.
