Delegate: Ms. Becerra
4. Ms. Becerra (Peru), speaking as a youth delegate, said that her country would have to tackle the challenge of economic inequality by equipping youth with the necessary tools to thrive in the era of globalization. The inability of low-income Latin American youth to access quality education intensified the cycle of poverty in the region. Comprehensive educational reforms would be needed to break that cycle, as would vocational training, such as that provided by the Peruvian Ministry of Labour to youths through its PROJoven programme. Nevertheless, without also addressing factors like hunger and chronic malnutrition, which could hinder mental and physical growth in children, such Government efforts would be futile. Indeed, food security remained a daily challenge for millions of Latin Americans living under the poverty line.
5. Most alarming was the fact that 86 per cent of Latin Americans living in extreme poverty hailed from middle-income countries, but the international community refused to allocate them more financial and cash resources to combat poverty, believing that those countries already had sufficient means. While Peru had made progress towards poverty reduction, it was essential that humanitarian agencies such as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) continued to support Government efforts in that area, as over a third of the country’s population remained below the poverty line.
6. With regard to climate change, she noted that Peru was one of the countries most vulnerable to the effects of global warming, despite being responsible for only about 1 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions. A concrete example was the melting of the Pastoruri glacier in the Andes, which had led to a water supply crisis in the coastal and mountainous regions of the country. Deforestation resulting from illegal logging was another environmental issue of concern. Technical and financial cooperation between countries would be needed in order to assist middle-income countries in mitigating the harmful effects of climate change.
UN Doc.: A/C.3/64/SR.4
Cite as:
UN Doc.: A/C.3/64/SR.4, 21 October 2009, p. 2, Youth Delegate Search: https://youthdelegatesearch.org/peru-2009/, doi: 10.17176/20221018-194317-0.