In 2021, amid mixed progress with vaccination against coronavirus disease (COVID-19), Latin America and the Caribbean is continuing to record high infection rates and loss of life because of the pandemic. Although ECLAC estimated GDP growth of 6.2% for the region (ECLAC, 2022), this alone is not enough to mitigate the social and labour effects of the pandemic, which are severe, unequal and closely tied to the structural problems of inequality, poverty, informality and vulnerability. This edition of the Social Panorama of Latin America therefore calls for adoption of transformative public policies with equality and sustainability at their centre, to prevent the social impacts of the pandemic from enduring and having medium-term repercussions, widening multiple existing social gaps, marked by the axes of the inequality matrix and the culture of privilege.

For the short-term recovery to be one with equality, health, care and employment reactivation policies, as well as supporting a gradual safe return to school are vital, it is also crucial that the countries of the region maintain the emergency social protection measures they have implemented, so that broad sectors of the population —including those in informal work— can meet their basic needs (ECLAC, 2020b, 2021c and 2021e). The countries of the region made noteworthy investments in emergency social protection measures in 2020 in response to the pandemic, but there has been a considerable decline in 2021. While in the last 10 months of 2020 the emergency transfers announced by Latin American countries to mitigate the impact of the crisis entailed spending of US$ 89.7 billion, in the first 10 months of 2021 spending on such measures was US$ 45.3 billion. Thus, annual expenditure in 2021 will be just half of the previous year’s.