Chile Solidario System: Comprehensive Social Protection for the Country's Poorest 225,000 Families

This presentation was commissioned by the Poverty Reduction and Social Protection Network of the Regional Policy Dialogue for the IV Hemispheric Meeting celebrated on November 11th and 12th, 2002. The country¿s sustained growth from the mid ¿80s up until 1998 made a steady reduction of poverty and indigence possible because of the impact that economic growth had on the labor market. Unemployment rates since 1998 have been significantly higher than those observed before the ¿90s, with the result that the decline in poverty rates has slowed somewhat and the incidence of indigence has risen slightly. Between 1996 and 2000 poverty declined from 23.2% to 20.6%, while indigence rose slightly from 5.6% to 5.7%.