National Social Protection Policy.

The National Social Protection Policy is a national policy with a cross-sectoral approach. The purpose of this Policy is to enable economic growth and investment while increasing environmental quality and social inclusiveness, with a special emphasis on the most vulnerable population of Saint Lucia.
Social, environmental and economic policies will be integrated to address the multi-dimensional nature of poverty in order to provide a more holistic and comprehensive strategy towards achieving national human and economic development. Therefore, protective, preventive, promotive and transformative measures will be taken to alleviate economic, social and environmental deprivation, including relief of chronic and extreme poverty, increase resilience through effective disaster risk reduction and management, increase income generating opportunities, and to ensure social equity and inclusion. The rights-based approach will be implemented to guarantee social protection and to enable citizens to claim their social protection rights. To this end, accountability mechanisms and institutional capacity will be developed to guarantee the appropriate design and delivery of social protection. Access to essential social services in the areas of health, water and sanitation, education, food security, housing, and welfare will be improved for all, paying particular attention to the poorest and most vulnerable populations. In addition to that, the poor and vulnerable will be protected by appropriate safety net programmes in periods of economic contraction. Human capital investments will be enhanced in education, health, nutrition and skill development for vulnerable children and their families to overcome inter-generational cycle of poverty. Better and more productive jobs will be provided to raise household incomes as well as to improve the productivity and employability of the population. Empowerment and promotion of self-sufficiency of beneficiaries will be promoted by designing and implementing poverty and vulnerabilities reduction interventions. Effective information, education and communication strategies will be developed for achieving equitable and sustainable social protection systems for all. The collaboration with the Civil Society Organisations, Faith-based Organisations and other relevant non-state actors will be increased in the coordination and delivery of Social Protection programmes.
A Research, Monitoring and Evaluation Systems will be developed for evidence-based programming and policy formulation, and for the routine and periodic review and management of the Social Protection programmes. Reporting mechanisms will be developed to distribute the information produced by the M&E system in order to ensure that the different users receive all relevant information and analysis in time to fulfil their role in the Social Protection Framework.