Efforts on to assist most vulnerable

The Ministry of People Empowerment and Elder Affairs, which has
responsibility for some of the most vulnerable groups in Barbados
including the destitute, elderly, the disabled and children, is
grateful for the support being given to this country by the United
Nations SDG Fund Joint Programme on Social Protection.

Minister of People Empowerment and Elder Affairs, Cynthia Forde, noted
the above as the Joint SDG Fund in the Eastern Caribbean held a
virtual launch of the Joint Programme recently, under the theme
“Universal Adaptive Social Protection to Enhance Resilience and
Accelerate the SDGs in the Eastern Caribbean”.

“As we are all aware, Barbados fully supports any collaboration which
brings key stakeholders to the table for the empowerment of vulnerable
communities. What is particularly heartening  is that the programme is
grounded in the research, analysis and aggressive monitoring and
evaluation needed supply the evidence-based development of an adaptive
system for social protection, one that can also serve as a model to
sister nations in the OECS region and sub-region,” Minister Forde
remarked.

“While the programme was initially framed under the Barbados Economic
and Transformation Programme called BERT – the national macro-economic
strategy to maintain adequate social and economic spend – COVID-19
brought into extreme sharp focus the need for this project. While we
struggled like all other countries to navigate these unchartered
waters as a result of the pandemic, we were also made acutely aware of
the deficiencies in our system which had to be addressed and addressed
with a sense of urgency. What we required was a more adaptive social
protection system that will reliantly withstand impacts,” she added.

Minister Forde meanwhile noted that such a programme will now aid the
government in reaching out further to assist those who are most
vulnerable and in need of social protection.

“We are all aware of the excellent work that we've been doing over the
many years in Barbados, with the women and of course our children and
our boys, and we will continue to work with the single headed
households. This project will assist us in helping to reach out
further,” Forde indicated.

“We were doing some investigations over the past year and a half in
relation to our vulnerable households, our vulnerable people, and many
of them would be the single headed households, particularly by women,
and so we will continue to strengthen those areas. We have been doing
the investigations and the information is coming in,” she said of
further assistance to be rendered.

Minister Forde highlighted that much work is ongoing during this
current COVID-19 pandemic to help clothe, feed and house persons in
dire need, even as the Ministry collaborates with other agencies, and
work will continue with the assistance of the recently launched
programme to ensure that the quality of life of those in the
vulnerable category are improved on a sustainable basis.
(RSM)꯯