The immediate objective of social funds was to cushion the impacts of adjustment policies on the poorest, not to attack the structural causes of poverty. Although many experts stated that liberalization and global- ization policies would benefit the poorest sectors, what has been con- firmed is that the structural causes of poverty cannot be modified in the short or medium term only by expanding economies. Despite economic growth, poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean region continues to increase because structural causes of poverty do not weaken auto- matically with economic liberalization and growth
