Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper - UNDP Barbados and the OECS ...

In recognition of the fact that economic prosperity does not necessarily bring an
improvement in welfare, the government has indicated that direct state intervention
would be needed to facilitate the objectives of the National Poverty Reduction Strategy in
the medium to long term. In line with its overarching development objective, as
articulated in the MTESP 2002 – 2004, the Government will vigorously implement the
necessary economic and social measures to ‘attain high levels of sustainable growth and
development, while reducing the levels of poverty.’ 24 As a means of informing and
strengthening this process, it is proposed that a pro-poor budgetary analysis be conducted
in order to evaluate the collective outcome of government’s expenditure, and thus to
improve the government’s targeting of the poor.
The main emphasis would be to implement a more focused diversification programme
while putting the necessary measures in place towards attaining a more viable export
sector and ensuring that the populace would be able to make use of the opportunities
afforded them to improve education and health.
These objectives must take into account Government’s well-laid plans of maintaining
fiscal integrity and good governance. In addition, the attainment of the development
objectives must be predicated on the following, which are by no means exhaustive:
?? Mobilising domestic resources for development.
?? Improved and focused legal and regulatory framework to facilitate investment.
?? Continued focus on pro-poor policies, particularly equity in access to the factors
of production-land, labour, knowledge and capital.
?? More focused and deliberate policy for an improved implementation of
programmes supporting economic growth and development.
?? Implement the recommendations of the poverty reduction strategy 25 .
In relation to the developmental goals for St. Vincent and the Grenadines, the Public
Sector Investment Programme (PSIP) has been restructured to reflect the policies
enunciated in the Medium Term Economic Strategy Paper 2002-2004 and recent Budget
Addresses. Greater emphasis will be placed on achieving higher rates of implementation
of the PSIP in order to build the necessary platform to facilitate private sector-led growth,
while reducing the levels of poverty and improving the social infrastructure. In this
regard proposed investment in the education and social sectors over the medium is
expected to be 28.2 percent up from the 26.4 percent in the previous planning periods
with the economic and other sectors accounting for the balance.
Whilst Chapter five (5) provides a detailed analysis of the components of the Poverty
Reduction Strategy, it is clear that the effectiveness of the strategy is dependent on the
sequencing and prioritization of poverty reducing programmes. More importantly, it is
imperative that priorities must be established given the limited resources available. The
National Consensus on the goals and priorities of the National Poverty Reduction
24 Medium Term Economic Strategy Paper 2002-2004
25 MTESP, Ibid, p 3-4
Final SVG I-PRSP Revision June 2003
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