[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 127 (Friday, August 3, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1734-E1735]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     CARIBBEAN STATES MAKE ASSESSMENT OF THE IMPACT OF POVERTY ON 
                              DEVELOPMENT

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, August 3, 2007

  Mr. RANGEL. Madam Speaker, I rise today to enter into the Record an 
opinion editorial published in the CaribNews newspaper the week ending 
July 31, 2007 titled ``St. Vincent & the Grenadines: Launches Poverty 
Assessment Survey'' and an article entitled ``Poverty Picture in the 
Caribbean: Barbados to Undertake Assessment.'' Both examine the 
initiatives these countries have taken to address poverty.
  As CARICOM nations look to move to a single market economy, they 
should be encouraged to take a proactive approach to assess poverty in 
their individual nations. Poverty assessments serve as the key 
instrument of poverty reduction strategy. They are designed to assess 
the extent and causes of poverty in a given country and to propose a 
strategy to ameliorate its effects. Understanding the causes and 
characteristics of poverty in the Caribbean is particularly important 
at this time as there are indications that living conditions in some 
countries have declined in recent years.
  The data gathered from these assessments will be used to evaluate the 
quality of life and living conditions being experienced at the 
community, family and individual levels, with particular interest and 
emphasis placed on vulnerable groups like women, and children.
  The increases in competition stemming from global economic changes in 
trade and capital markets, the erosion of preferential market access, 
the vulnerability of the tourist industry and competition from other 
destinations, and decline in official capital flows from bilateral 
sources all present a particularly difficult challenge for the 
Caribbean. Given this environment, there is an urgent need for 
countries to pursue policies that will stimulate and sustain economic 
growth and prioritize investments aimed at reducing poverty and 
developing human resources. So I commend the leadership of the 
governments of Barbados and St. Vincent & the Grenadines for the steps 
they are taking to assess poverty in their countries.

                    [From CaribNews, July 17, 2007]

             St. Vincent Launches Poverty Assessment Survey

       Kingstown, St. Vincent, CMC--St. Vincent and the Grenadines 
     has launched an EC$2 million-dollar (US $749,000) poverty 
     assessment programme that Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves 
     said would be welcomed regardless of the outcome.
       ``Only on the foundation of truth we can build efficacious 
     policies,'' Gonsalves said as he addressed the launching of 
     the project on Tuesday. The poverty assessment project will 
     seek to create a profile of poverty on the island and is 
     being funded by the European Union and the United Nations 
     Development Programme.
       The last poverty assessment survey was undertaken in 1996 
     and it found that 37.5 per cent of the population was poor, 
     while 20.4 per cent of the households and 25.7 per cent of 
     the population was indigent, or living below the poverty 
     line.
       Gonsalves, who said that poverty reduction is one of the 
     central pillars of his government's programme, said he was 
     prepared to accept the results of the new survey.
       He noted that in the event that the assessment showed there 
     had not been a significant enough reduction in poverty, more 
     would have 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,'' he said, blaming 
     the then New Democratic Party (NDP) government of not 
     properly preparing the nation for the quickly changing 
     economy.

[[Page E1735]]

       He said they were too concerned with keeping spending down, 
     maintaining a surplus on the current account and other things 
     that amounted to simply keeping their heads above water.
       The Prime Minister suggested that more concrete policies 
     needed to be enacted to deal with the crippling challenges 
     that globalisation and trade liberalisation was going 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,'' Gonsalves said.
       The poverty assessment will be conducted by the Trinidad 
     and Tobago based firm KAIRI Consultants Limited, the same 
     group that did the 1996 assessment.

                    [From CaribNews, July 23, 2007]

Poverty Picture in the Caribbean, Barbados To Undertake Assessment Soon 
To Find Out How Many Living Below Poverty Line, Assessment To Begin in 
                                 August

                             (By Tony Best)

       With poverty levels running the gamut from about nine per 
     cent in the Bahamas and 18 per cent in Jamaica to 21 per cent 
     in Trinidad and Tobago and almost 60 per cent in Haiti, 
     according to the United Nations, Caribbean governments are 
     extremely sensitive to figures which indicate that poverty 
     was either on the rise or was far too high. That explains why 
     the Arthur Administration in Barbados is gearing up to 
     undertake a comprehensive national poverty assessment, 
     beginning possibly in about a month's time and using a 
     broadened definition of poverty.
       Trevor Prescod, Minister of Social Transformation, told the 
     CaribNews that it was important for the government to have a 
     firm idea about the full extent of poverty so that it could 
     target more of its programmes, projects and resources to the 
     task of meeting the needs of people living in dire 
     circumstances.
       ``We haven't had any recent scientific analysis of it 
     (poverty) and we are now into, probably within a month or so, 
     we are going to have a wide assessment of poverty,'' the 
     Minister said in New York after he signed the United Nations 
     Convention on the Rights of the Disabled, the first human 
     rights treaty of the 21st century.
       ``We are now putting together the kinds of operational 
     management structures to ensure that that assessment is 
     carried out in a very scientific manner,'' he explained. ``We 
     have just established a planning unit within the Ministry of 
     Social Transformation. We are working with the Statistical 
     Department, the Caribbean Development Bank and we are going 
     to have other agencies coming in as well.'' For instance, the 
     University of the West Indies may be invited to carry out the 
     actual research for the country's human development report, 
     according to Prescod.
       ``When we get that report we would be in a better position 
     to tell you if there has been any fundamental changes, if we 
     have been able to reduce the numbers'' of people living in 
     poverty,'' he said. The Inter-American Development Bank 
     carried out the last assessment of poverty in Barbados a 
     decade ago and it showed that about 35,000 persons or an 
     estimated 13-14 per cent of the population lived below the 
     poverty line. ``Enough time has elapsed that we need to have 
     a new report to see if we have made any dent into that 35,000 
     that we talk about,'' Prescod added. ``But it all depends on 
     what you use as a measurement for poverty. The IDB dealt with 
     an income consumption analysis and what the Ministry is 
     doing, we now have a broader definition of poverty.''
       Specifically, it would focus on ``social deprivation,'' 
     taking into account access to health care, education and 
     other essential services rather than simply zeroing on income 
     and consumption, he pointed out.
       However, the approach the government plans to adopt would 
     make it difficult to compare the IDB's rate with any new 
     findings, because the latter would touch on the lives of a 
     broader cross-section of the Barbadian population. That 
     raises the distinct possibility that the actual number of 
     poor people could be higher than in the late 1990s.
       ``It is going to be very difficult if we now have the new 
     definition to compare it with what occurred with the IDB's 
     assessment,'' the Minister said.
       While he acknowledged that any assessment which showed a 
     rise in poverty could become a political controversy, with 
     the Opposition Democratic Labor Party leading the charge 
     against his Ministry, Prescod said that it was clear that the 
     Arthur Administration had attacked the problem of poverty by 
     eliminating many of the debilitating conditions under which 
     some Bajans had to live. ``If we do an assessment we would 
     discover there has been a change, especially in the provision 
     of housing, many of the persons identified the last time 
     around have since been empowered, were retooled by giving 
     skills to those persons who previously had no skills,'' he 
     argued.
       ``You would discover that both the Urban Development 
     Corporation and the Rural Development Corporation have 
     replaced the dilapidated houses. On the basis of observation 
     alone, without having the kind of empirical figure to show, 
     there is obvious evidence of an improvement. I think that is 
     what worries the opposition more than anything else.
       ``We have done a lot of work, especially in the urban and 
     rural communities across Barbados,'' he said. ``We had lots 
     of people living in horrible conditions and we have been able 
     to make substantial changes in the lives of those persons. No 
     one can realistically question the quality of life and the 
     way it has improved in Barbados over the last 10 years or so. 
     We have done exceedingly well.''

                          ____________________