[Dominican Republic] WB: Dominican poverty gauging system is region’s weakest

from Dominican Today

The Dominican Republic has one of the weakest systems in Latin America for monitoring living standards of its population -- weaker than those of other less developed nations.

The afore-mentioned was part of the findings reported by the World Bank on poverty levels in the Dominican Republic.

The international financial entity deplored that “in the country, there is no consensus as to the gauging levels of poverty that may better suit the nation.”

The report stated that budget support is required for the National Statistics Office (ONE), so as to improve availability and use of house surveys for analyzing public policies and to identify of poverty focal localities and evaluate programs.

The document also stated the importance of authorities defining, by inter-institutional consensus, a methodology to measure monetary poverty in the country, making sure that mechanisms are in place for updating such a method on a regular basis according to best international practices.

Notwithstanding, the report acknowledges the government’s efforts in revising and updating its data gathering instruments.