Tackling Poverty Among Children

An open house was held at the Inspiration Center today, where stakeholders from various government agencies participated in a discussion on children and poverty.  The session is part of an ongoing initiative being led by UNICEF, the Ministry of Human Development and the Organization of American States.  Doctor Susan Kasedde, UNICEF’s Country Representative in Belize explains its purpose.

Susan Kasedde

Dr. Susan Kasedde, UNICEF Country Rep, Belize

“UNICEF is hosting a special open house this morning together with the Ministry of Human Development, Social Transformation and Poverty Alleviation and the OAS.  The open house this morning is focused on the topic of multidimensional poverty in children.  Like many countries, Belize is working to strengthen the way that we measure and interpret the experience of poverty in families and an important part of that is really understanding what to look for to best understand how poverty affects children and families and then use that information to inform how we respond.  UNICEF’s program has one major component that focuses on supporting the Government of Belize and our partners to reduce multidimensional poverty in children and to strengthen our monitoring.  So this open house really is one of many activities that we are supporting to improve understanding, to ultimately improve the measurement and therefore the targeting of social protection programs in Belize.”