David Evans: "Poverty in Latin America is a problem that is still very important, especially for young people".

advisor Poverty in Latin America, the role of schools in eradicating it, the policies to be developed to combat it... David Evans, chief economist of the Inter-American Bank development, spoke about these issues at the II Spanish Workshop in Development Economics organized by the Navarra Center for International Development (NCID) of the Institute for Culture and Society (ICS) of the University of Navarra on November 24 and 25, 2024. 

"One of the things we know today is that investments in young children have a huge return," he said. A few years ago a study came out from Jamaica showing the impact of investments in children's development among children ages 1 and 3. After 30 years of follow-up, it was found that children who had received investments had 30% higher income than those who did not. "It's a time core topic in life when you can develop skills," he noted.

Regarding the role of schools in eradicating poverty, the expert pointed out that, in many cases, children in Latin American schools do not learn as much as they should. "If we look at the results of inter-country tests in these countries, we find that children with more resources have the same results as the poorest," he said. For Evans, it is clear that the results are core topic to promote the development of engineers, doctors... basic for a society that is growing. For this reason, he assured that the role of schools is "essential". 

One of the problems he has detected in the educational system in Latin American countries is that there is no investment in Education or in training teachers, since they do not have mastery of the material they are teaching. "Getting a better training of teachers and continuous support for them to keep improving, more people are invited to be teachers," he has exposed. 

According to researcher, it is evident that the level of school withdrawal is very high. Before finishing high school, many students in these areas stop studying because they do not see the relevance and this, in many cases, has to do with the lack of quality. 

Evans also spoke about the policies that can be developed to help families that do not have sufficient opportunities. To eliminate immediate poverty at the family level, he assured that there is a tool called 'transfers' that allows children not to go hungry and to be able to go to high school, that each child has a minimum level. "A recent analysis sample that, in Latin America, the level of transfers is very low if we take into account that we have to try to eliminate hunger," he concluded. 

The Spanish Workshop in Development Economics is a platform where expert researchers from Economics of development meet in order to give visibility to their research and encourage the exchange of ideas exchange . For Jaime Millán, researcher of NCID and organizer of the conference, this second edition has been an opportunity for researchers from Spanish institutions to collaborate and establish a vibrant community to advance the research of this area.