The Latin American and Caribbean region is navigating a complex scenario of great uncertainty that is deepening the impacts of a prolonged social crisis, with a silent and devastating impact on education. This edition of Social Panorama of Latin America and the Caribbean focuses on education and its place in the policy discussion for recovery in the region.

Since 2015 the region had already been seeing a deterioration in welfare levels, a stagnation in educational attainment and a slight rise in poverty rates.

But the pandemic generated a major social crisis, which has now stretched into a third year. Although the COVID-19 pandemic is expected to come to an end, the region has not been able to make headway in recovering from its social impacts and regain the levels of social indicators registered in 2019, before the pandemic.

Meanwhile, the region is still exposed to an unstable global geopolitical and economic scenario marked by a combination of successive crises, especially the war in Ukraine (ECLAC, 2022c, 2022g). This scenario has led to a slowdown in economic growth with slow generation of employment, especially in quality jobs, together with strong inflationary pressures that have pushed up food and energy prices, together with heavy falls in investment. Thus, after the 6.5% expansion of GDP in the region in 2021, for 2022 the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) estimates growth of 3.2%, and for 2023 projects expansion of just 1.4% (ECLAC, 2022h). The lowest income quintiles are more intensely affected by high inflation, especially in the food component of the consumption basket, and the most vulnerable middle-income strata are also suffering these impacts. These factors are in addition to other ongoing risks, such as the increased frequency of disasters and the impacts of the climate emergency (ECLAC, 2021a). This context may produce a new setback in the region’s social development and a scenario of instability on the social, economic and political fronts. It is therefore urgent to consolidate inclusive social policies capable of protecting and ensuring population’s well-being and exercise of rights.

Of particular concern is the increase in food and nutritional insecurity amid rising food prices. According to data from FAO and others (2022), in 2021 hunger affected 56.5 million people in the region (49.4 million in Latin America and 7.2 million in the Caribbean). Rising food prices are expected to increase malnutrition, with increases in undernutrition, overweight and obesity. In 2020, 21% of the population of Latin America (117.3 million) and over 50% of the population of the Caribbean (13.9 million) could not afford to maintain a healthy diet (FAO and others, 2022). This number may be expected to have increased in the current conditions, with particular effects on children and adolescents, given the serious impact that malnutrition has on their comprehensive development and exercise of rights. ECLAC estimates indicate that 45.4% of people under 18 years of age are living in poverty in Latin America in 2022: 13.3 percentage points above the average for the total population. In particular, 18.5% of this age group are estimated to be living in extreme poverty. These young people are facing a higher risk of food insecurity because they live in households that cannot afford the basic food basket. The region urgently needs to address its ongoing debt to this age group in terms of providing universal social protection and the conditions for the full development of their capabilities, while preventing further well-being losses that would have lasting impacts over time.