Multi-dimensional poverty
in the region: Grenada
context
Presented by:
Honorable Delma Thomas
Minister for the Ministry of Social
Development and Housing
Background
2008 Grenada Country Poverty Assessment,
37.7% of the population (41,000 persons)
lives under the poverty line
 Grenada has managed to reduce indigence
and food poverty as per the 1998 Country
Poverty Assessment, however poverty in
2008 remained at a comparable level to that
of 1998

Governmental Policy Approach
 Developmental
focus-
◦ To diversify the economy
◦ To improve the quality of primary
and secondary education
◦ To invest in infrastructure
◦ To improve social services delivery
Impediment to Sustainable
Socioeconomic Development
 Low
human capital development:
◦ Low levels of education and skills across
age cohorts and income percentiles
◦ Increased prevalence of noncommunicable and communicable
diseases
◦ Increased reported incidents of child
abuse, teenage pregnancies, and domestic
violence against women and girls
Counteractive Measures
Improved access to quality primary and
secondary education
 Improved access to primary health care
and improved infrastructure
 Enacted laws, Implemented policies and
Prevention programs and protocols
developed to aggressively address social
problems of Child Abuse, Domestic
Violence and Teenage Pregnancies

Current vision for social protection
 Contextual
framework utilizing a
holistic approach to provide social
protection
 The social protection system aimed at
the protection of the population
against vulnerability while assisting
those who are already vulnerable due
to poverty, natural disasters and
physical disablement

The measure includes developmental,
preventative, remedial and supportive
approaches
◦ Utilizes strategies such as direct money
transfers, government initiatives for education
and access to health, as well as interventions
that address pressing social problems

Support for Education, Empowerment and
Development (SEED) aims to support the
poorest and most vulnerable people in
Grenada by providing them with
Conditional Cash Transfers (CCTs)
SEED’s Objectives

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Removal of fragmentation and duplication in
existing social assistance programmes
Improvement in targeting of benefits
Increased coverage of poor persons
Development of more cost effective delivery of
benefits
Reduced fiduciary risk in cash transfer processes
Establishment of a link between the delivery of
benefits and human capital investment, especially
in education and preventive health care
SEED Main Components
Educational Cash Transfer which targets
children between 3 and 18 years who are
registered in public schools
 Health Cash transfer which targets
households in need who are registered in
community health centres
 Workshop participation component
which facilitates self-development for
beneficiaries of SEED

SEED’s Target Objectives
To target all those in need by developing an
equitable system of selection and an
efficient mechanism for the delivery of the
conditional cash transfers
 To achieve this goal by the implementation
of a targeting tool and a comprehensive
targeting system

Benefits of Accurate Targeting
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The optimal transfer scheme is one that
gives transfers only to those under the
poverty threshold
It is given with differentiated transfers in
accordance to the distance from each
individual’s income and the poverty
threshold
Therefore, the poorest of the poor are the
population with more need and therefore
are to be prioritized in terms of the amount
of the transfer