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Prime Minister Andrew Holness (file photo)
Prime Minister Andrew Holness has declared that the Government will be moving to end absolute poverty in Jamaica, barring any supervening event, such as a global pandemic.
Holness told a post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House on Thursday that the new focus will build on the Government’s success in crafting programmes to alleviate poverty nationally.
“We are going to push heavily to reduce poverty… Like everybody else, we love the poor, but we hate poverty, and we are going to eliminate poverty from our society; not by talk, not by wishful thinking, not by empty promises, not by beautiful speaking, but by strategic, deliberate and instrumental policies,” the prime minister announced.
The Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) announced on Wednesday that the country has achieved a historic low poverty rate, which plummeted from 16.7 per cent in 2021 to 8.2 per cent in 2023, marking the lowest level recorded since measurements began in 1989.
The prime minister outlined that his Administration has, among other things, reduced unemployment, increased public sector wages, built more social houses, implemented social pension programmes, and increased access to training for persons to find meaningful employment.
“We have been instrumental, and I think that has been a critical part of the success of our programme in alleviating and addressing poverty,” Holness said.
“So what it means is that there are less persons in Jamaica who could be considered absolutely poor,” he suggested.
He said with the poverty level now at historic low, the Government must renew its goal of eradicating absolute poverty.
“The next step of the Government is to end absolute poverty in Jamaica; this is something that I have said before, and it is the intention,” Holness offered.
He elaborated that the country was in “striking distance” of ending absolute poverty.
“We want to ensure that we push this poverty prevalence number way, way down, and then at that point we can revise what’s the new threshold for somebody to be considered living at, or below the poverty line. So it’s quite doable,” Holness stated.
To achieve that goal, he said the Government must continue implementing strategic policies, including training of young people, improving social services, and ensuring that the country’s marginalised population is protected by a very effective social safety net.
On that score, Holness said the Minister of Labour and Social Security, Pearnel Charles Jr, has been tasked with continuing efforts to reform the Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH) to make it more accessible and efficient.
“We’re also looking at ensuring the inclusion element for those persons who are marginalised and in vulnerable situations where are they are not able, in of themselves, to access these benefits.
“There are many Jamaicans like that; they may be in rural areas, they may be in inner-city communities, and they are of the notion that if they present themselves to the state, they are going to be rejected, or they are going to be subjected to something that might demean them,” Holness posited.
The Solidarity Programme is to be rolled out to capture some of those persons who have not received any social benefits locally, according to Holness.
Announced in March during the prime minister’s Budget presentation, one-time cash grants of $20,000 are to be provided to 50,000 vulnerable Jamaicans through the $1 billion initiative.
“That will have another major impact on addressing poverty by dealing with the exclusion element…, (by) including all the people in the population who we have not been reached,” Holness stated.
He said another aspect of the pivot for his Administration is the goal of increasing growth nationally, which will result in less poverty.
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