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

Executive Summary
Preamble
The Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) is intended to be the blue print for
developing policies and programmes to address key elements of Poverty Reduction in the
short, medium, and long term. Unlike low-income countries that are highly indebted to
the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, St. Vincent and the Grenadines
(SVG) was under no external obligation to develop a PRSP. The initiative grew from
the relatively new government’s commitment to attack the scourge of poverty which so
deleteriously affects the lives of too many citizens of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
Although an initiative of the government, the Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper
(I-PRSP) is by no means, nor is it intended to be, a “government alone” strategy. The
methodology will show that it is a product of the National Economic Social and
Development Council. Intensive consultations of key stakeholders in the private, civic
and public sectors contributed significantly to its development.
It is recommended that this I-PRSP be the key instrument for identifying national
priorities for poverty reduction and for establishing a basis for discussion and negotiation
internally between national stakeholders and externally with the development partners.
This document will be disseminated and discussed widely. Appropriate changes will be
made, and the final – though iterative, document will form the agreed national social
policy strategy framework, which will present guidelines in policy and programme
development for Public, Private and Civil Society sectors. In the interim the
infrastructural elements necessary for the operationalizing of the Poverty Reduction
Strategy will be established, and those activities identified for immediate action will be
undertaken.
As indicated, this I-PRSP is not a static document. Internally driven, it embraced a unique
combination of process, development and implementation. Given the urgency for
poverty reduction efforts by the nation, the government and NESDC; and the fact that the
NESDC Task Force was comprised of government and non-governmental players in key
positions, the process in itself incorporated the implementation of proposed and
developed strategies. The process began – perhaps significantly, on September 11,
2001. A draft I-PRSP was completed by June 2002. Circulation, dissemination and
utilization were intertwined. It was used in preparing government sector plans and
budgeting for the following year, and the thrust for national public consultation in all
sectors as a means of empowerment was intensified. Other tangibles with international
partners emanating from the process and the draft document included a substantial debt
relief from the United Kingdom in September 2002, and the establishment of a Social
Fund providing funds by the European Union for direct disbursement to communities for
poverty alleviation in February 2003. The Caribbean Development Bank Basic Needs
Trust Fund (BNTF) is using the document in preparing its fifth Action Plan. Financial
support from the UNDP through the OECS Secretariat has continued throughout the
process.
Final SVG I-PRSP Revision June 2003