Building a 21st-Century Social Security Through Cell Phones Authors: Mikel A. Alcázar The reality of workers around the world has changed radically since the first social security schemes were developed in the 19th century. In Latin America and the Caribbean, where people now live much longer but typically save little for retirement, adapting pension systems to the current social, economic and demographic conditions is likely to become one of the greatest challenges countries will face in the future. “Latin America and the Caribbean is one of the most unequal regions of the world. It’s also one of the regions that will age most rapidly. This is why we have to find new solutions to protect the most economically vulnerable. The convergence between new technologies and behavioral economics opens a potential avenue to deal with this social debt, which will become an urgent problem in coming years,” says Marcelo Cabrol, manager of the Social Sector at the Inter-American Development Bank.