In presenting a new study at the Second Meeting of the Regional Conference on Social Development here, ECLAC, therefore, warned “there is a risk of rollbacks in the current context of low growth.”

 The study titled “Linkages between the social and production spheres: Gaps, pillars and challenges,” examined household surveys from 17 regional countries for the 2002-2015 period.

It concludes that fewer than three in 10 households in the region “are in a situation of dual inclusion, that is to say, minimum levels of simultaneous social and labour market inclusion.”

ECLAC said the concept of dual social and labour inclusion refers, on the one hand, to universal access to education, health and social protection, as well as to basic infrastructure -energy, drinking water and sanitation- and, on the other, to decent work, meaning quality employment, paid in decent conditions, with access to rights and to social protection.

ECLAC said this new methodological approach “seeks to complement the measurements that the Commission has traditionally carried out in terms of poverty and income inequality in the region.”

The study underscores that, as a simple average of countries in the region, the percentage of households with minimum levels of dual inclusion increased from 20.4 per cent in 2002 to 29.2 percent in 2014, but slipped to 28.6 percent in 2015.

At the same time, the study says the percentage of households in a situation of dual exclusion fell from 44.1 per cent to 33 per cent between 2002 and 2014, rising to 33.3 percent in 2015.

“In absolute terms, 56.5 million households (a total of 172.5 million people) had achieved those minimum levels of dual inclusion in 2015, while 39.2 million households (145.6 million people) were in dual exclusion in the same year,” the study noted.

The study says it is essential for countries to have good information systems on the productive structure and labor markets, as well as effective intermediation services regarding the workforce and its qualifications.

“The role of educational systems, especially technical and vocational education, is key in this sense,” it said,, adding that it is also necessary to expand and strengthen social protection systems and spaces for dialogue and negotiation among stakeholders in the world of work to mitigate the possible negative effects of these changes on employment and on people’s rights and to distribute their benefits more equitably.

“The more than 162 million young people between the ages of 15 and 29 in Latin America and the Caribbean have an essential role to play in productive change and sustainable development,” states the study, which also calls for strengthening social policies throughout the life cycle, with a focus on childhood, adolescence and youth.