Collaboration is Key to Help Expand Options for Poor and Vulnerable

Carla Barnett

Minister of Labour Carla Barnett, along with the World Bank and UNICEF, explains how the different parties involved can collaborate to eliminate the economic vulnerabilities of poverty and deprivation. 

Carla Barnett, Minister of Labour

“If we can bring the private sector on board to work with us and if we open up ourselves and work willing and openly with the private sector, it becomes easier for us to set up a system where available jobs can be matched with available workers; so that first and foremost commitment to improve collaboration among us.”

Asha Williams

Asha Williams, Social Protection Specialist, World Bank

“In the case of Belize, where there are issues such as high rural poverty, high female unemployment; all of these require very nuance approaches to address these challenges and the involvement of poor people in the informal sector is a critical challenge that needs to be addressed. So, it is not only people who are unemployed that are facing these constraints but people that are in the informal sector who lack basic income protection and income security. It requires a multifaceted approach. So, one of the things that we will be sharing are different interventions that countries have deployed to address this challenge in a multi-faceted way.”

Susan Kasedde

Dr. Susan Kasedde, UNICEF Rep, Belize

“One of the critical messages that UNICEF will share during this meeting is the importance of early investment in quality education; investment in improving access to education and opportunity for skills development for young people. We know that for us to continue to see, to continue to maintain the good trends in terms of access to employment, we need to make sure that workforce is skilled and that needs to start very early.”