Ministry of Social Development

Ministerio de Desarrollo Social
Ministry of Public Works Building, seat
Ministry overview
Formed	1955
Dissolved	December 10, 2023; 23 months ago (2023-12-10)
Superseding Ministry	Ministry of Human Capital
Jurisdiction	Government of Argentina
Headquarters	Ministry of Public Works Building,Av. 9 de Julio 1925,Buenos Aires
Annual budget	$ 252,626,198,315[1]
Minister responsible	Victoria Tolosa Paz

TheMinistry of Social Development (Spanish:Ministerio de Desarrollo Social;MDS) was aministry of theArgentine Government which oversaw the country's public policies on issues such as social assistance,welfare and human development across the country. The ministry was created in 1955 as the Ministry of Social Assistance, and it was given its current name in 1999 during thepresidency ofFernando de la Rúa.

The ministry was dissolved on December 10, 2023 following a presidential decree from PresidentJavier Milei.^[2]

During the presidency ofJuan Domingo Perón aconstitutional reform expanded the ministries of the federal government creating theMinistry of Health. In 1955 themilitary coup ofEduardo Lonardi abolished many of the changes made by Perón, including the Ministry of Health, and created the Ministry of Social Assistance.^[3] It was soon after renamed Ministry of Social Assistance and Public Health,^[4] and later in 1966 renamed Ministry of Social Welfare,^[5] while still overseeing public health issues. During the 1983 democratic government ofRaul Alfonsin the ministry was renamed again as Ministry of Health and Social Action,^[6] and in 1999 presidentFernando De la Rúa decided to split the two ministries again, giving each the same precedence in theCabinet of Ministers.^[7] Thus the modern Ministry of Social Development was born, which was again briefly merged with the Ministry of Health during the presidency ofMauricio Macri regarding budget cuts in 2018.^[8] In 2019, former presidentAlberto Fernandez decided to split both ministries again on the first day in office,^[9] and thus the Ministry of Social Development became a ministry on itself again until it was dissolved.

Decree 141 signed by presidentNestor Kirchner in 2003 modifies the Law of Ministries to clearly state the function and objectives of the Ministry of Social development,^[10] among which we can name:

• Execute actions towards modifying attitudes in the general population from a social perspective, and also planning and auditing any actions regarding promotion, protection, training and development of human groups with social needs, within the policies established by the federal government, andinternational treaties.
• To intervene in those cases of social emergency that requireassistance from the government, in coordination with theMinistry of Health.
• Execute actions towards securing financing plans ofsocial development.
• Formulate, normalize, coordinate, audit and evaluatefood policies applied in federal, provincial and local levels.
• Execute actions of direct assistance to people in situation ofsocial risk, both inside the country and abroad, participating in international help plans.
• Formulate policies destined to infancy, youth and family; design, execute, coordinate, audit and evaluate programs of promotion, protection, social integration and defense of the rights of minors, following the guidelines of theUnited Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
• Formulate policies regardingsocial promotion destined to the youth.
• Formulate policies towards strengtheningsocial economy, and to design, execute, coordinate, audit and evaluate programs ofmicrocredit destined to thesocially vulnerable population.
• Assign and distributesubsidies to resolve unpredicted states of necessity, or those not covered by current programs, and those given to public or private institutions that develop activities benefiting the general population.

The Ministry of Social Development has offices in over 50 locations^[11] across the country, but the central office is located in what is known as theMinistry of Public Works building, arationalist style building located in the famous9 de julio avenue in downtownBuenos Aires, between Moreno street and Belgrano avenue. The building originally housed the offices of theMinistry of Public Works since its inauguration in 1935, and PresidentCarlos Menem relocated the ministry to a building near theCasa Rosada in 1991,^[12] allowing the then Ministry of Health and Social Action to have a new headquarters. After the split during the De la Rúa presidency, of the 22 floors of the building, the top 10 floors house the central offices of Social Development and the bottom 11 to the currentMinistry of Health. The ground floor office space is split among the two ministries. Social Development also has offices in other 8 locations within the city of Buenos Aires, and offices in at least one city of every province of Argentina.

The building was built from 1932 to 1936, right around the time the government began plans to bulldoze completeblocks of buildings in a north–south corridor to create the9 de julio avenue. By 1947, bulldozing and construction of the avenue reached the southern tip by Moreno street, but the building was spared from demolition, as it was the Ortiz Basualdo palace (headquarters of theFrench Embassy in Argentina) and the Palacio Álzaga Unzué in the northern end of the avenue. The avenue thus currently has a choke point between Belgrano avenue and Moreno Street, where the car lanes have to go around this building. It is the only building with a 9 de julio street address.^[12]

The building is notable for having two gigantic metal contour portraits ofEva Perón in the south and north facades, as a reminder of her dedication to the social development and welfare of the socially vulnerable population.^[13]

• Official website (archived)

• Government ministries of Argentina
• Social affairs ministries
• Government ministries established in 1955
• Government ministries disestablished in 2023
• 1955 establishments in Argentina
• 2023 establishments in Argentina
• Presidency of Fernando de la Rúa

• CS1 Spanish-language sources (es)
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Pages using infobox mapframe with missing coordinates
• Articles containing Spanish-language text