The sociodemographic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in Latin America and the Caribbean

Abstract

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has had a profound and multidimensional impact on the population. Latin America and the Caribbean, characterized by high levels of inequality, labour informality and vulnerability, is one of the regions hardest hit by the health, economic and social impacts of the pandemic. This document analyses the effects of the pandemic on population dynamics and on the sociodemographic processes outlined in the Montevideo Consensus on Population and Development, such as ageing, gender equality and women’s autonomy, the exercise of sexual and reproductive rights, territorial inequalities and mobility. It also assesses how the pandemic has affected the different population groups identified as targets of the priority measures of the Consensus owing to the exclusion, discrimination and vulnerability they have historically experienced, and the fulfilment of the rights of which they are holders. This document was prepared pursuant to the request of the Presiding Officers of the Regional Conference on Population and Development of Latin America and the Caribbean, with a view to systematizing and analysing the sociodemographic impacts of the pandemic in the region, and includes policy recommendations for a sustainable recovery with equality in the framework of the Montevideo Consensus on Population and Development.