Public services as an indicator to measure poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean

Abstract

The present is an article of theoretical methodological review, which proposes that within the existing routines and proposals by international organizations, such as the Inter-American Development Bank and the United Nations Development Program to measure the levels of poverty in emerging countries, grant greater participation to coverage in public services, as a relevant indicator within all indicators to measure the conditions of the poorest communities. This proposal was born from the fact that, in the XXI century, there are still regions of Latin America and the Caribbean, where people do not have basic public services, a fact that significantly affects the quality of life of its inhabitants, generating serious damage in health, such as respiratory diseases, gastrointestinal diseases, viruses and others. Obviously, within all the existing indicators, public services are contemplated but in a smaller proportion, giving more room for income and other variables. By applying the information collection instrument reflected in a survey, it can be shown that one hundred percent of the respondents believe that there are still high levels of poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean, and thirty percent assume that it is possible to assume the absence of public services as a valid indicator of poverty, while, to phenomena such as corruption, fifty-two percent of the blame is attributed to the records, and eighty-nine percent of the respondents affirmed that if a the country presents economic growth, its levels of poverty must decrease.