No issues that involve an entire country can be resolved in a single-dimensional way. It is of common knowledge that all the issues that the Americas go through are not only multifaceted, but also interconnected with all the other countries of the region and Europe that share the same language. There are common grounds among them and also some deep differences. Can those be used to resolve the intricacies of today´s real problems? Read on to see what the Ibero-American Summits can bring to the light.
Cultural, social, educational and politic issues of the Americas have more sides to consider than they ever had in history. The utterly-connected world and the hyper communicated human beings that inhabit it have developed a complex reality in which we are more connected than ever but also having severe social differences. These social differences vary from one country to the next but according to the Annual Meeting of Global Leaders that was held in Davos, Latin America is the world´s region that bears the highest inequality index. This is not a minor issue, because the efforts on reducing extreme poverty have proven to be successful, specially in the Caribbean, but the inequality persists.
Why is inequality a multifaceted issue? Because it is not only the fact of inequality that is harmful, but also takes people to anger and depression. Social differences are as deep as the 2014 statistics show: 71% of the wealth of the region is in the hands and bank accounts of the richest 10%.
According to predicting calculations made by Oxfam, in six years, the richest 1% will have a greater wealth than the remaining 99%. This is not only a problem in itself, but can also lead to social violence and right deprivation as well as educational gaps and human rights vulnerability.
Social inequality as many others, is an issue that can´t be tackled by a single country or a single government. There has to be a profound consensus by all the involved parties in trying to make the region a place of peace and equality. One of the resolutions that came from the last Annual Ibero-American Conference of Ministers of Economy and Tourism held in Guatemala prior to the 2018 Summit gave new insights over an issue that had been overlooked for a long time: tourism. Among the 25 agreements that were reached at the Conference, the idea of collaborating in the strengthening of the tourism industry in the region was one of the strongest ones. According to Jaime Alberto Cabal, who is the General Secretary of the OMT (World Tourism Organization in Spanish), there has to be an end to living isolated. The joint effort of a tourist route and promotion to all the beautiful landscapes and natural resources on the region could be the solution to generating and maintaining economic growth.
According to the resolutions at the Annual Ibero-American Conference of Ministers of Economy and Tourism, the joint effort can only be inclusive and sustainable if the different starting points are considered. For example, it is not the same for the government of a country with the population of Brazil to make an investment on tourism to improve the reach to certain northern beaches as it is for the Dominican Republic or Cuba which have a very distinct gross domestic product. With those differences in mind, the help of the Summit can be directed to those who need it more and the countries that have more possibilities.Resources should always help those in need.
The horizontality of the outcome when more powerful countries help those in need is the spirit of the summit. Also, those that are little and have a small amount of resources can be of great help from other points of view. For example, if any help goes from Brazil to Cuba in terms of helping to foster tourism, it can be returned with highly-qualified health professionals. According to all documents ever developed by or for the summit, collaboration will make the world a better place and reduce inequality as well as other multifaceted problems.