BARBADOS WILL STENGTHEN its social safety net for its poorest citizens and improve labour market training opportunities with a US$10 million loan approved by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
The programme seeks to reduce extreme poverty and high unemployment rates.
It will be structured in three components: reduce extreme poverty through the expansion and consolidation of the Identification Stabilisation Enablement and Empowerment Bridge Programme; reduce unemployment through improved employment services and demand driven technical training; and create an efficient management information system that connects programmes executed by various Government agencies.
Although Barbados has a Human Resource Development Strategy (2011-2016), further consolidation with its social policies is needed. The existing labour market programmes have limited coverage and the relevant government units lack the tools to adequately target beneficiaries, monitor programmes’ implementation, and improve inter-agency coordination and with the private sector.
This programme will cover 250 additional households or approximately 2 000 individuals during a four-year period, focussing on the following pillars: personal identification, education and human resources development, family dynamics and health promotion.
The activities that will be executed under this component include the financing of day care services, school meals, school textbooks and uniforms, remedial learning courses, and selected health promotion services.
In addition, it will aid 8 000 Barbadians seeking jobs by providing access to improved job counselling services, better local labour market information, and offering demand driven technical training courses for unemployed youths.
The programme will fund a management information system that will strengthen the Government’s coordination, monitoring and accountability capacities related to national labour market trends.
The IDB will provide US$5 million from its ordinary capital, while the China Co-financing Fund will contribute US$5 million for this project. The IDB loan has a 25-year maturity, a 5.5-year grace period and an interest rate based on LIBOR, which is currently about 1.2 per cent. (PR)
