Contributor(s): Dr Amir Lebdioui, Dr Alice Krozer, Professor Francisco Ferreira, Dr Laura Carvalho | Rethinking inequality reduction programmes in post-COVID Latin America is timely and urgent. What are the pathways forward? After a decade or more in which inequality had fallen in Latin America, in recent years inequality had risen once more, motivating waves of protests across the region. COVID-19 has exploited existing inequalities affecting both the health outcomes and livelihoods of the poorest segments of the population. Maintaining the status quo is unlikely to be sustainable and may further hinder political stability in the region. An increasing number of scholars, politicians, civil society groups and other members of society have called for a new economic model in order to reduce income inequality. Leading experts on economics and inequality discuss the paths towards a sustainable and just model of development in Latin America and reflect on how and what we can learn from both the pre- and post-COVID situation in order to improve inequality reduction programmes. Meet our speakers and chair Laura Carvalho (@lauraabcarvalho) is Associate Professor of Economics at the University of São Paulo. She completed a PhD in Economics at the New School for Social Research in 2012. She is presently Senior Fellow at the Schwartz Center of Economic Policy Analysis (Scepa). Her research focuses on topics in macroeconomics and development economics, and particularly on the relationship between economic growth and income distribution. She acted as a weekly columnist for Brazilian newspaper Folha de S. Paulo between 2015 and 2019 and is also the author of the best-selling book Valsa Brasileira: do boom ao caos econômico on the rise and fall of the Brazilian economy, published in Brazil in 2018. Francisco Ferreira (@fhgferreira) is Amartya Sen Professor of Inequality Studies and Director (designate) of the International Inequalities Institute, LSE. Prior to returning to LSE, Francisco had a long career at the World Bank. He is an economist working on the measurement, causes and consequences of inequality and poverty, with an emphasis on developing countries in general and Latin America in particular. Chico has also previously taught at the Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro and at the Paris School of Economics. Alice Krozer (@alicekrozer) is a postdoctoral researcher in Social Inequalities at Colegio de México. Her main research interests include elites and privileges, discrimination and racism - as well as perceptions of inequality. She has worked as a consultant for the United Nations Economic Commission of Latin America and the Caribbean, Oxfam, among other institutions. Amir Lebdioui (@Amirlbd) is Canning House Research Fellow based at the Latin America and Caribbean Centre at LSE. His research has focused on the political economy of resource-based development, export diversification strategies, and green industrial policy in the context of renewable energy development and climate change. Cristina Cortes is the CEO of British think tank Canning House. She has worked in government, banking and energy across a variety of commercial, business development and government relations roles in London, Houston, Venezuela, Colombia, Argentina and Brazil. Cristina is an Oxford and LSE politics and economics graduate. Gareth Jones is Director of the Latin America and Caribbean Centre, as well as Professor of Urban Geography in the Department of Geography and Environment at LSE and an Associate Member of the International Inequalities Institute. He has an interdisciplinary academic background having studied economics, geography and urban sociology, and holds an undergraduate degree from University College London and a doctorate from University of Cambridge. He has held numerous visiting positions including at University of California San Diego, University of Texas at Austin, and the Universidad Iberoamericana. More about this event This event is part of the LSE Festival: Shaping the Post-COVID World running from Monday 1 to Saturday 6 March 2021, with a series of events exploring the direction the world could and should be taking after the crisis and how social science research can shape it. Opened in January 2016 to serve as a focal point for LSE’s research and public engagement with Latin America and the Caribbean, LSE's Latin America and Caribbean Centre builds upon the School’s long and important relationship with the region. The Centre supports the research of faculty from nearly every department across the School whose research is principally focussed on or relevant to the region. Twitter hashtags for this event: #LSEFestival