S.I.B. to Gather Pandemic Era Data

Diana Trejo

Earlier this week we told you about the Statistical Institute of Belize’s Poverty Study for 2018 and 2019, which used data from a 2018/2019 Household Budget Survey.  S.I.B. has now found it necessary to conduct a poverty analysis over the next few months to get a true picture of COVID-19’s impact on poverty in Belize. Although the next poverty analysis is not scheduled until two years from now, Acting Director General at S.I.B., Diana Trejo says gathering such data during the pandemic is crucial.  She also gave an update on the census.

Diana Trejo, Acting Director General, S.I.B.

“The sooner that we can do a follow up to this, the better, in terms of capturing some of the immediate effects. So, as I mentioned, we are looking at possibly doing a measurement of poverty in September. So, we are looking at much more current results, much faster, than to wait for a country poverty assessment to be done in a couple years’ time. I will also mention, the census, which was supposed to be done last year, the intention was that we would also utilize census data to do some poverty measurement. However, as that was postponed, it was not possible to measure poverty in 2020. However, we are looking at doing it in September. That would mean, we have something pertaining to conditions during the pandemic too that can be accessed much earlier than waiting two years for a much larger country poverty assessment.”