Ending Child Poverty in Belize

A stakeholders consultation was held this morning to discuss the issue of child poverty in Belize. Under the theme “From Deprivation to Inclusion: Beyond Measuring Child Poverty in Belize”, the ministries of Economic Development and Human Development partnered with UNICEF to focus on ways in which child poverty can be reduced.

Dr. Osmond Martinez

Dr. Osmond Martinez, C.E.O., Ministry of Economic Development

“We’re looking at ways on how to reduce child poverty as the presentation was done with empirical data, where it shows that between 2015 and 2020 child poverty, for example, in Belize District had an increase of almost fifteen percent and in the Toledo District, child poverty increased by 10.9 percent. This by itself speaks very poorly of where we are, but what is more scary is that we have had four poverty census, one in 1995, then 2002, 2009 and 2018. From 1995 to 2002 there had been an increase in poverty, 2002 to 2009 there had been an increase in poverty and 2009, 2018 an increase in poverty to the point that poverty in 2018 was at 52.8 percent. It’s unacceptable where more than half of our population is living below the poverty line.”