Government earmarks $2 million for poverty eradication

from The Cayman Net News

Minister for Human Services, Hon. Anthony Eden, has given assurances that the eagerly anticipated poverty study will be tabled in the Legislative Assembly when it is completed.

The Minister told a Cabinet press briefing last week that action would be taken immediately after its findings are known, saying that $2 million has been earmarked for that purpose.

One of the criteria to receive funding of the National Assessment of Living Conditions (NALC) study, known as the Poverty Study, by the Caribbean Development Bank, was that the document would be made public when it is finalised, according to Mr Eden.

“I would like to put at rest the idea that this is going to be something that is not going to be dealt with,” said Mr Eden. “I have commitment from my Cabinet and my colleagues, the back benchers, that they will support us in this report and it will be tabled. It will not sit on the shelf.”

Moreover, Mr Eden said Government will commit up to $2 million for improvements to social services that are recommended by the study after it is tabled in the Legislative Assembly.

The poverty study intends to assess and quantify the social and economic problems of people who are living below the poverty level, as well as determine the demographic make up of the vulnerable sectors of the population. It will also form the basis for developing social programmes and services that would be most effective in meeting their needs.

The study will give people the opportunity to relate their experiences through individual and group discussions and talk about how they are coping.

There are two phases to the study: the participatory poverty assessment and the survey of living conditions/household budgeting survey.

The participatory poverty assessment phase will involve community meetings, focus groups and in-depth interview in targeted communities.

The participatory poverty phase will focus on key areas: how people sustain their livelihoods; public services currently available and the obstacles people face in accessing them.

In addition, the participatory poverty phase will also gather information on people’s concerns, needs and priorities, interventions and actions that are needed in order to improve their living conditions.

To get the participatory poverty phase off the ground, numerous volunteers are needed to be trained as enumerators. According to Mr Eden the National Assessment Team (NAT) visited all districts from including Cayman Brac to meet 150 volunteers who are interested in becoming enumerators from 8 through 18 January.

Through this series of meetings the ideas and feedback from volunteers was sought by the NAT in how to carry out the study.

In some of the district meetings, there were some concerns raised by the community that there may be issues in getting people who they don’t know to share such personal information about their lives.

Members from the NAT team stated that they were sensitive to this issue and that careful screening and training of facilitators and enumerators and training is being done to deal with this issue and to protect the anonymity of people who participate in the study.

The information obtained from both phases of the study will be combined into one report, which will be submitted to Government and released to the public.

The large number of 150 volunteers indicates that there is a significant amount of public support behind the study and Mr Eden has high hopes that the results will help Government be more effective in providing social services to vulnerable sectors of the population.

Mr Eden added that this study will take nine months, and no study of this magnitude has ever been done before in the Cayman Islands.

“This study is not just about poverty. It is across the board as so many of my people have said. It is to chart a path as we go forward for social development in the Cayman Islands.

“We all await and look forward improve the way we do business as a government and as we provide services to the less fortunate. I keenly await the final results and look forward with my colleagues to do the necessary implementation to make life better for all residents, not necessarily Caymanians, but all residents here in the Cayman Islands,” said Mr Eden.