Finance Minister Camilo Gonsalves says social protection remains at the heart of the Government’s response to the recent challenges, and to our drive to reduce poverty and inequality in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
Gonsalves said while the current rate of support is obviously not indefinitely sustainable, and must be phased down as normalcy returns, it is also essential that the government don’t terminate these extraordinary interventions too soon, lest they cause lasting social dislocations that will be even more costly to rectify.
“As such, support to residents of the Red and Orange Zones will continue in 2022, and will gradually be phased out as farmers are once again able to harvest crops and commercial activity recovers somewhat in the northern third of the country.
Resources through the VEEP programme and the $12.7 million allocated for COVID and volcano relief programmes will continue to support these critical ongoing social protection needs”.
This year, the Ministry for Social Development will continue to innovate and operationalise fresh initiatives in the delivery of support services.
The Ministry has already piloted a debit card-based system for the delivery of social protection payments and will expand that system in 2022.
A number of other initiatives will be implemented this year to reach and support other vulnerable groups nationwide.
These include measures to improve support to the elderly, the differently-abled and the survivors of domestic violence.
