BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC -Barbados has launched a Country Assessment of Living Conditions (CALC) 2024, which will be undertaken over the next six months and aims to provide the island’s poverty line.
Minister of People Empowerment and Elder Affairs Kirk Humphrey, speaking at the launch, said the survey results should be known by January 2025.
He said that the CALC project will empower lives and the nation as a whole and that understanding ordinary people living in the country is essential. He also urged Barbadians to participate in the study, which the CALC National Assessment Team will roll out in July.
He said such a study needed to be done more frequently, as the “spaces between studies” have “been too long.” He also lamented that data is often unavailable in Barbados and the region.
“Caribbean countries have a history and a miserable record of inadequate data. There is a shortage of important information on many important topics, so decisions can’t be made. And then when we’re being assessed, we assess the information people do not have,” Humphrey said.
The last survey of living conditions was done in 2016, and Humphrey said, ‘We do not know what it will tell us now, but we do know that we need to know so that we can make informed decisions.
“I also have had some concerns that, while perhaps we pursue the information, a lot of the data that should be used to make decisions are not used. Caribbean governments are very good at collecting information sometimes and not doing anything with it.”
Humphrey assured the public that the information from CALC 2024 would not be “stored on a shelf to gather dust” but would be used to make serious decisions in the future.
We must do that; it cannot be a made-up conjecture, gut feeling, or interpretation of reality. We need scientific, evidence-based interpretations of people’s realities and the ability to express that as an accurate representation of what people are dealing with in this country.”
Thirty-five enumerators will survey Barbados. The results will help the government assess its people’s living conditions and develop a poverty line by next year.
The Country Assessment of Living Conditions 2024 will target an estimated 2,800 households. It is expected to help the government determine a household’s minimum income to meet its essential consumption and non-consumption needs and understand the dynamic link between poor living conditions and education, health, household size, and employment.
It will also encapsulate citizens’ voices and take their recommendations to improve living conditions. It will also allow Barbados to track progress towards national-level goals and international social development agreements, such as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
CALC 2024 is being undertaken with technical assistance from the Barbados-based Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
It comprises four major components – the Participatory Poverty Assessment, the Survey of Living Conditions, the Institutional Assessment, and the Macro-Economic and Social Assessment.
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