Social Protection Summit in Belize to Establish National Strategy
Poverty has an adverse effect on the wellbeing of over fifty percent of Belize’s population. To address the scourge of poverty, the Government of Belize is seeking to strengthen its national social protection system through the implementation of a social protection strategy. Several entities have combined efforts to organize the country’s first Social Protection Summit. The event will be used as a platform for discussions towards developing the national strategy. The end goal of the strategy is to reduce depravation and improve the lives off all Belizeans. News Five’s Paul Lopez reports.
Paul Lopez, Reporting
HelpAge Belize has been serving the elderly for the past four decades, to aid in the challenges associated with aging. Today, chairman of the non-governmental organization, Evan Dakers, is attending the Belize Social Protection Summit 2023 in Belize City.
Evan Dakers
Evan Dakers, Chairman, HelpAge Belize
“I think a summit like this definitely is very important for an organization such as ours. Some of the challenges, I will just mention one or two. The first one that comes to mind is income insecurity. We have a number of elderly persons who for no fault of their own are not getting any type of pension. Some of these people haven’t been able to get the benefits because their employers did not contribute towards the social security scheme, and in some cases maybe at the time when they were working there wasn’t any scheme.”
Dakers also noted that access to affordable and quality medications is a prevalent issue among elderly persons in Belize. The four-day summit was organized to bring various stakeholders together for the creation of a National Social Protection Strategy that will address these kinds of concerns. UNICEF Belize is one of the organizers of the summit. The social policy specialist at UNICEF Belize explained why a national social protection strategy is necessary in Belize.
Enkhnasan Nasan-Ulzii
Enkhnasan Nasan-Ulzii, Social Policy Specialist, UNICEF Belize
“According to the Statistical Institute of Belize data, as of 2019 more than fifty percent of people were living in poverty and it was especially high for children among children. Around sixty percent of children between zero to fourteen were living in poverty this time. Also SIB has conducted a multi-dimensional poverty index analysis in 2022 and according to this analysis, people in Belize, including children are deprived in many aspects, such as access to education, access to health, access to housing or living standards and access to employment. So, there are a lot of high levels of poverty and depravation in Belize. Therefore social protection is very important to address poverty and depravation in Belize.”
According to the Minister of Human Development, Dolores Balderamos-Garcia, the Government of Belize is has been doing its part to reduce poverty. She says a national strategy shows that her party is committed to leaving no one behind.
Dolores Balderamos- Garcia
Dolores Balderamos- Garcia, Minister of Human Development
“I am delighted because I really believe if our government is committed, as we say we are, to leaving no one behind, then we have to have that strategy and it does take time to speak with partners to make sure we can have all overall umbrellas as I would like to call it. It is always a challenge for countries like ours, small very vulnerable to external shocks. I think with Plan Belize we are going in the right direction. We have the roll out of the National Health Insurance, we have the creation of jobs, and we have various aspects continuing. The Ministry of Education has been doing an excellent job in terms of rolling out the STEAM Academy and none tradition jobs like in the ITVETS, so when you talk about all these issues, we are talking about social protection, cause the more we reduce poverty the better we will be.”
And while the process to develop this national strategy is underway, the elderly population in Belize may be increasing in numbers. The last national population census revealed that the elderly make up fewer than ten percent of Belizeans. Dakers says he believes that SIB’s upcoming census report will reflect this increase. He also says that he is interested in hearing how the government plans to finance its strategy.
Evan Dakers
“In terms of what is taking place here over the next couple of days, we are hoping that the partnership, because it is a partnership between government and NGO sector that we can come up with some workable solutions that can be properly planned and financed. Because, we can come up with all these beautiful plans and programs. But if they are not financed, it is of no use. So I am looking forward to a presentation from the Government of Belize in terms of how they envision the financing of some of these recommendations.”
Reporting for News Five, I am Paul Lopez.
