2006). Of the poor, children and youth are hardest hit, as they accounted for approximately 60% of the poor as of 2002 (CEPAL, 2003; Dirven, 2004).
     At the Millennium Summit, organized by the United Nations in 2000, the governments undertook to cut poverty in half in the following 15 years; even so, poverty reached the levels mentioned above. According to CEPAL (2006ab), the number of poor diminished in relative terms only 8.5% from 1990 to 2005, from 43.3% to 39.8% of the total population, whereas the number of people living in extreme poverty diminished, in the same period, from 22.5% to 15.4%. In the rural areas the downward trend is similar, yet poverty only declined in real terms from 65.4% to 58.8% of the rural population.
     According to almost all indicators, LAC is the most unequal region in the world (Cardoso and Helwege, 1992; Rosenthal, 1996; Berry, 1998; O’Donnell and Tockman, 1998; Hoffman and Centeno, 2003; Portes and Hoffman, 2003; CEPAL, 2004; Ferranti et al., 2004). The Gini coefficient2 for the region is 0.52, whereas for the industrialized countries of the OECD it is 0.332; in the Asian countries it is 0.40; and the Gini coefficient for Africa is 0.48. Note that the index of inequality is different from the poverty level: Africa is poorer than Latin America, but less unequal. The worst cases are Bolivia, Brazil, Honduras, Colombia, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, Chile, Guatemala, Paraguay, Mexico and Argentina (Table 1-4).
     In the late 1990s, six of every 10 poor lived in urban zones, making Latin America and the Caribbean the developing region that best exemplifies the worldwide process of the “urbanization of poverty” (in contrast with Asia and Africa, where most of the poor population is in the rural areas). Nonetheless, the impact of poverty in LAC continues to be greater among rural residents, especially among women. Economic globalization and neoliberal policies have affected the characteristics of the contemporary rural labor market, reducing to a minimum or eliminating government protection for workers, increasing unemployment
and underemployment and displacing small-scale producers (Valdés, 2005). Nonetheless, there have been areas in which non-traditional export crops have expanded opportunities for rural employment, especially among women, though these jobs are often seasonal, poorly paid and under precarious conditions involving mistreatment and discrimination(Deere, 2005).

Most of the poor in the countries of the region were in the rural areas until the early 1980s. As a result of the negative social impact of the “crisis of the lost decade” and of the advance of the process of urbanization, poverty came to 2 The Gini coefficient is a measure of inequality developed by Italian statistician Corrado Gini. Normally it is used to measure income inequality, but it can also be used to measure
any form of unequal distribution. The Gini coefficient is a number between 0 and 1, where 0 corresponds to perfect equality (everyone has the same income) and 1 corresponds to perfect inequality (one person has all the income and everyone else has none). The Gini index is the Gini coefficient expressed as a percentage and is equal to the Gini coefficient multiplied by 100.

be located mostly in urban areas by the mid-1980s. During the subsequent period of economic and social improvement, the urbanization of poverty continued, until it stabilized at about 62% from 1994 to 1997 (as a result of a new increase in the number of rural poor) (Table 1-5).

The statement that poverty in LAC is mainly an urban phenomenon (Dirven, 2004) does not reflect the complexities of the situation. First, it should be noted that four large and relatively urbanized countries—Brazil, Mexico, Colombia and Argentina—dominate regional statistics. Second, surprisingly little is known of the degree of rural poverty in the region, since the estimates of poverty are incomplete, or little attention is paid in the analyses of poverty to rural poverty, especially as it affects the indigenous peoples of the region; they have higher poverty levels and have never been very well-represented in the statistics. Urban poverty in LAC has been better studied and documented through surveys. Nonetheless, there is information in the region that clearly illustrates the rural situation. For example, in three countries, the rural population is over half the national population (Guatemala, Haiti and Honduras). Since a much higher proportion of the rural population is poor, in at least 12 countries most of the poor live in rural areas. In at least five countries (Colombia, Brazil, Venezuela, Mexico and Panama) poverty is disproportionately distributed in rural areas. Finally, in all the countries of Latin America, the lowest income deciles, i.e., the extremely poor, are mostly made up of rural population. If one compares the average standard of living of the urban poor with that of the rural poor, it is clear that poverty is much more severe in rural areas.
     According to CEPAL (2006ab), in absolute terms, the number of poor in urban areas has also increased, since in 1980 there were 73 million urban poor. The number of peasants in extreme poverty has climbed, over the last two decades, from 39.9 million to 46.4 million. The gains of the 1990s in terms of poverty alleviation have not offset the increase in poverty during the previous decade.
     It is estimated that eight to ten million rural households are headed by women; some two or three million women perform seasonal work in agriculture or agroindustry; and 30 to 40 million women with spouses or partners are partly or entirely responsible for agricultural production and smallscale rural industry. Rural women have become part of the poorest population groups as a result of internal conflicts, the increase in the migration of men within and outside the country, natural disasters and the consequences of structural adjustment (see 1.6.2.6).
     In terms of education, the illiterate population 15 years and over accounts for 9.5% of the total in this age group in LAC (CEPAL, 2004ab). Illiteracy is 10.3% among women and 8.8% among men. The drop-out rate is 37% for Latin American adolescents. Almost half drop out early, without finishing primary education, but in several countries most of those who drop out do so in the first year of secondary education; and most are in the lowest-income level, reinforcing the chain of inequality from childhood. Economic difficulties, work, or looking for employment are the main reasons
young people give for dropping out of school. Among women, other reasons are household tasks, pregnancy and maternity.