Eastern Caribbean countries are reportedly finding the Caribbean Development Bank’s recently developed Enhanced Country Poverty Assessment (eCPA) toolkit more than useful in supporting responses to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, information emanating from the Bank suggests.
The Bank has been implementing its Toolkit through its Caribbean Disaster Risk Reduction Fund (CDRRF) supported by Canada and the European Union.
It appears that governments in the Eastern Caribbean are reacting favourably to an instrument that provides reliable information regarding families requiring social protection, a facility that can be more than handy at a time when governments in the region are preoccupied with responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The instrument helps take the guesswork out of determining which families require social protection programme benefits.
The research and training carried out during the development of the Toolkit was supported by the Country Poverty Assessment Unit of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS).
Saint Lucia is reported to have already pressed the Toolkit into service to design a Survey of Living Conditions-Household Budget Survey (SLC-HBS) from which data was collected to pursue a national eligibility test, an approach which the CDB says made the identification of vulnerable communities and individuals more scientific. What the Toolkit does is to broaden the criteria for vulnerability beyond income-related poverty, extending into deprivation in terms of education, health and employment, which will position the countries to provide better interventions to poor households.
Acting on data acquired reportedly through the application of the Toolkit, St. Lucia has moved to expand the number of households [assessed] by 1,000 to respond to COVID-19 over the next two to three months as part of an economic resilience and recovery strategy. In the instance of COVID-19, St. Lucia plans to use the Toolkit to help target the households which require state assistance.
