Effective Planning for Recovery Essential to Reduce Poverty Rates

The Citizen Front Against Poverty warned about the risks of a lack of planning and resources oriented to economic recovery. Poverty numbers in Mexico are also at risk of increasing. A study done by BBVA stated that Mexico would have between 12 and 16.4 million people who would qualify for poverty due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the Citizen Front Against Poverty, there are three factors that are boosting the country's poverty rate at the moment, one of them being the current government’s policies, the lack of a recovery program and the COVID-19 pandemic. The front addressed several points that could help avoid a rise in the country's poverty rate. One of them is the need to even the quality and attention of public health services (ISSSTE, IMSS and INSABI) but it highlights that the challenge here is the lack of resources. Further investment is needed but tax collection is not at a level to provide those extra resources.

Another factor discussed is the lack of jobs and the unemployment brought by the pandemic. More social programs are needed to aid people in finding jobs or to provide support for those who lost their job, as most of the existing ones are focused on people with disabilities, students and senior citizens. IMSS informed that 113,850 jobs were recovered in September. According to the institute, this has been the highest recovery since the pandemic started and after losing 1.1 million jobs.

The Citizen Front Against Poverty proposed five pillars that need to be addressed as soon as possible  and as part of a long-term plan to avoid a bigger hit on poverty numbers: the right to a well-paid and worthy job; universal healthcare coverage; quality education; a system to take care of seniors, girls and people with disabilities and basic income for unemployed people. The front also mentions 10 measures that could bring benefits in the short term, among them improving public education, scholarships, gradually increasing the minimum wage, promoting sustainable projects, universal healthcare coverage and guaranteed basic income transfer.