According to latest Ministry of National Development information about 1 in every three persons in Belize is poor, and 1 out of 10 persons is very poor. This is alarming if you are to consider that Belize's population is just barely inching past the quarter million mark. Because of those alarming figures there is a concerted effort to alleviate poverty. Spearheading the drive is the Ministry of National Development and today they released the latest documentation proving that the task is daunting.
Hugh O'Brien, CEO - Min. of Human Development
"The reports start with a report that was together by a consultant that assessed the effectiveness of the last strategy and action plan that existed and then that was followed by another work that was done trying to identify the various areas of Belize and the types of investments that needed to be made in order to reduce poverty. The third report was put together by a Guatemalan company that essentially took the poverty information by village, by district, and prepared a poverty map of Belize and so we have poverty indices by households, by different categories of poverty and this is outlined in a very clear document that is prepared by them and it is left behind in a software that can be used for future work and future updating. The last report is a report put together by a local team of people that conducted consultations in every district of Belize. Two consultations were conducted in the Belize District and one in every other district and some very keen insights came out from the people they met with in the rural parts and the other parts of Belize.
The most important of these four reports obviously is the public consultations that were done where grassroots people, people from the villages, people from the NGOs, people who are feeling poverty, have come out and said this is what I think poverty is and this is what I think I should do, this is what I think other people should do, and this is what I think the government should do. And so those information are being brought together and it will be fine tuned and by October of this year we'll have a final strategy and action plan that will be used to guide the government's investment in reducing poverty in Belize over the next five years."
The Ministry of National Development's national poverty elimination strategy and action plan is expected to be ready for full implementation by October of this year.
