Resource information
This report makes several policy
conclusions related to urban poverty and development in
Uruguay and potentially the rest of Latin America. First,
policies which prioritize improvements in access to quality
basic services, particularly education, health,
transportation, social assistance, more flexible land use
policies, as well as public information for those in
marginal areas could help to provide an important link to
jobs and human capital development, and reduce some of the
facets of social exclusion. New community based programs
designed and implemented by neighborhood members based on
specific needs, or expansion of existing community programs,
could also help to reverse the marginalization process.
Second are policies related to housing. Policies that foster
the maintenance of traditional integrated neighborhoods, or
minimize the concentration of the poor in marginal
neighborhoods, may mitigate the exclusion process. Such
policies, while politically popular, should be investigated.
Finally, the aggregate numbers on inequality appear to mask
what is happening at a more disaggregated level such as the
neighborhood. While income inequality for the country as a
whole only shifted slightly during the 1989-1996 period, the
within and between area changes were significant. The
results of the analysis also show that polarization is not
symmetric - poor individuals are clustering more, but higher
income areas still have a higher income variance and more inequality.
