World Bank2013-08-212013-08-212013-06978-1-4648-0078-8https://hdl.handle.net/10986/15265The Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region has made laudable progress in the past fifteen years in reducing poverty, building the middle class, and promoting prosperity for all levels of society. Extreme poverty, defined in this region as life on less than $2.50 a day, has declined by half, while in 2011 for the first time in recorded history the LAC region had a larger number of people in the middle class than in poverty. Across this region of close to 600 million people, the poor have been gaining faster than the already well off. But despite these impressive achievements, about 80 million people still live in extreme poverty, half of them in Brazil and Mexico. And millions more who have risen out of poverty risk being pulled back down into it by economic shocks and severe weather brought on by climate change. This brief reviews the LAC's progress toward these objectives, outlines the continuing challenges and proposes a policy framework for keeping the region on its upward arc and picking up the speed.Durante los últimos anos, la pobreza extrema en América Latina y el Caribe (LAC), definida en la región como la supervivencia con menos de US$2,5 al día, se ha reducido a la mitad, al tiempo que, en el año 2011 tuvo, por primera vez en la historia más personas de clase media que pobres. A lo largo y ancho de esta región de casi 600 millones de personas, los pobres han mejorado más rápido que los más favorecidos. No obstante, pese a estos importantes logros, todavía hay alrededor de 80 millones de personas que viven en condiciones de pobreza extrema, de las cuales la mitad se encuentran en Brasil y México. También hay millones de personas que han salido de la pobreza pero corren el riesgo de caer de nuevo en ella debido a los choques económicos y a las inclemencias del tiempo provocadas por el cambio climático. Este informe repasa el progreso de LAC en la consecución de estos objetivos, resume los continuos retos a los que se enfrenta y propone un marco para aquellas políticas destinadas a que la región siga en su tendencia al alza y ganando velocidad, recomendando una política fiscal equitativa, eficiente y sostenible que promueva la prosperidad compartida, el fortalecimiento de las instituciones públicas, la creación de un mercado accesible y la mejora de la gestión de riesgos.en-USCC BY 3.0 IGOaccess to goodsaccess to marketsaccess to sanitationaccess to servicesagricultural extensionAndean regionanti-povertybasic food basketbasic food requirementsbasic sanitationcapital accumulationcapital inflowsCaribbean Regioncash transfer programcash transfer programsChanges in Povertychronic povertychronically poorclean waterclimate changeconsumption growthcountry datadaily incomeDevelopment EconomicsDevelopment IndicatorsDevelopment Reportdirect transfersDiversificationeconomic contractionseconomic criseseconomic developmenteconomic growtheconomic shocksEconomicsemployment incomeequitable accessEstimates of povertyextreme povertyextreme poverty lineextreme poverty linesfinancial crisisfinancial institutionsfinancial marketsfood basketfood pricefood pricesfood requirementsGini coefficientglobal economyglobal levelGrowth rategrowth rateshigher inequalityhousehold datahousehold headhousehold per capita incomeHousehold sizehousehold surveyHousehold surveysHousehold Welfarehousinghuman capitalhuman capital levelsincomeIncome Distributionincome growthincome inequalityIncome PovertyIncome Redistributionincome Shareincome Transfersincreasing inequalityindividual countriesinequalityInequality reductioninformal economyinsuranceinternational poverty lineslabor forcelabor marketliving standardslong runLow-Income Countriesmean incomeMeasurement of Povertynational accountsnational povertynatural disasterNatural disastersnegative impactNet Incomenon-income dimensionsnutritionper capita growthpersistent povertypolicy makersPolicy ResearchpoorPoor Householdpoor householdspoor rural householdspoverty changesPoverty DynamicsPoverty Indexpoverty linespoverty measurementPoverty Measurespoverty persistencepoverty ratePoverty ratespoverty reductionpoverty riskpublic policypublic sectorquality of lifereal incomesreducing povertyregional dataregional levelregional povertyregional reportrich countriesrisk managementrunning waterruralrural areasRural povertysafety netssanitationsavingsschool attendanceschoolingsocial protectionsocial safety netssocial securitySocial Spendingsub-regionsubregionssustainable growthtransient poorunemploymenturban areasvulnerable householdsWarwelfare indicatorwelfare indicatorsWelfare MeasureWorld Bank10.1596/978-1-4648-0078-8