SVG launches Poverty Assessment exercise

This country’s Prime Minister is not afraid of what the report from the Country Poverty Assessment programme would indicate.

“Only on the foundation of truth we can build efficacious policies,” Dr Gonsalves said as he addressed the launching of the close to $2 million project last Tuesday.{{more}}

The European Union is the major sponsor of the project with $1.5 million, the Government next with $200,000 and any addition funding deemed necessary, while the United Nations Development Programme has contributed $80,000.

The poverty assessment project will be seeking to create a profile of poverty in St Vincent and the Grenadines. The last time such a project was done in this country was in 1996, and the results left a bitter taste in the then administration’s mouth.

The assessment determined that 37.5 per cent of the population was poor, while 20.4 percent of the households and 25.7 percent of the population was indigent (living below the poverty line).

Dr Gonsalves, who said that poverty reduction is one of the central pillars of his Government’s programme, said that he is prepared to accept what ever the assessment shows.

He noted that in the event that the assessment shows that there has not been a significant enough reduction in poverty, then it would mean that more has to be done in addition to what is already in place.

“History is replete with failed leaders who want to hear what they want to; they don’t last long,” the Prime Minister said.

Dr Gonsalves again accused the Sir James Mitchell-led New Democratic Party government of not properly preparing the nation for the quickly changing economy.

Calling that government’s policy wrong-headed, Dr Gonsalves said that they were too concerned with keeping spending down, maintaining a surplus on the current account and other little things that amounted to simply keeping their heads above water.

He suggested that more concrete policies needed to be enacted to deal with the crippling challenges that globalization and trade liberalization were going to present to the region.

“There was no preparation on the most critical resource before us, people, to address the changing nature of the colonial political economy,” Dr Gonsalves said.

Speaking at the launching, Director of Planning, Laura Anthony-Browne who is also the chairperson of the National Assessment Team (NAT), pleaded with citizens to be cooperative during the assessment exercise.

She said that some people usually see themselves as poorer than they really are while others who are poor sometimes prefer to keep their situation private.

She also stressed that the exercise is not a political one.

The poverty assessment will be conducted by the Trinidad and Tobago based firm KAIRI Consultants Limited, the same group that did the 1996 assessment.

Dr Ralph Henry of KAIRI said that it is important for Vincentians to know that the problems that they face are not unique to them, but regional in nature.

“We see ourselves as a nation and fail to recognize that really it is a problem of our Caribbean condition,” Dr Henry said.

He explained that in addition to a survey of living conditions, there would also be a participatory assessment which will take the form of community discussions. Also included in the assessment exercise is an institution assessment, where the contribution to the society of organizations, formal and informal, will be assessed.

Finally the exercise will contain a macro economy assessment phase along with a geographical mapping of the poverty situation in the country.