National Social Protection Policy.

The purpose of the National Social Protection Policy is to provide a clear framework for enhancing equity, efficiency and transparency in the delivery of social protection services. This framework shall promote synergies among agencies, programmes and interventions to reduce poverty and protect the most vulnerable population of Saint Lucia. The provides an opportunity to establish a policy package that enables economic growth and investment while increasing environmental quality and social inclusiveness by embracing Green Economy policies. This Policy comprises five main parts. The first part summarizes the current poverty and vulnerability context in Saint Lucia, as Background information. The second part highlights the Policy Purpose and its directions with its Rationale and Policy Statement of Philosophy, including the Vision Statement and the Policy Goals and Objectives. The third part presents the Policy Benefits while the fourth part speaks to the Policy Principles and Key Policy Statements. Finally, the fifth part presents the Policy Implementation and Reform processes with proposed Priority Areas for Action, an Institutional Framework and a description of the Roles of the Stakeholders.
Child and gender sensitivity of Social Protection interventions will be sought by considering the particular vulnerabilities that girls and boys, women and men face in their lifecycles, and ensuring that the design and implementation of interventions caters for these. The Employment and Social Protection are mutually reinforcing and indispensable avenues to socioeconomic development, poverty reduction and human dignity. Provision of better and more productive jobs raise incomes and help finance Social Protection, which not only contributes to better and more stable household incomes but also improves the productivity and employability of the population. Economic growth and the impact of that growth on the quantity and quality of jobs are crucial for the sustainability of Social Protection. Higher efficiency in the use of scarce resources will be ensured by reducing unnecessary duplication and overlap with respect to interventions, mechanisms and efforts, and creating modern processes and administration systems. Increased efficiency in reducing poverty and vulnerabilities will be obtained by: reducing inclusion and exclusion errors; ensuring higher impacts in the desired target populations through evidence-based policy design and programming; and the effective use of monitoring and evaluation information (4.2.2 to 4.2.5).
The Policy combines a mixture of protective, preventive, promotive and transformative measures aimed at: alleviating economic, social and environmental deprivation, including relief of chronic and extreme poverty (protective); reducing the consequences and impact of shocks before they occur (preventive); enhancing human capital, real income, capabilities and assets (promotive), while avoiding damage to the existing natural capital in order to facilitate the transition towards a Green Economy; and addressing social equity and exclusion concerns, including discrimination and abuse (transformative).
The goal of this Policy is to provide a framework, which promotes equity and enhances the well-being and capacity of poor and vulnerable households and populations in Saint Lucia to protect their consumption; invest in their future; and contribute meaningfully to national sustainable development. In light of the above, the policy objectives are to: i) Identify the multi-dimensional nature and analyses of poverty and vulnerability in the design and implementation of Social Protection systems; ii) Outline key actions and milestones for the progressive realization of universal coverage and the reduction in social exclusion and all forms of discrimination, while recognizing Saint Lucia’s capacity and context; iii) Conduct key social partners and institutional networks assessments to promote programme convergence and coordination for integrated and effective service delivery and systems; iv) Adopt a multi-dimensional approach for the evaluation and measurement of poverty in the future; v) Outline and adopt life-cycle, human development and rights-based approaches to provide services to the most vulnerable and poorest populations (including child sensitive and gender responsive approaches); vi) Target human capital investments in education, health, nutrition and skill development for vulnerable children and their families to overcome inter-generational cycle of poverty; vii) Identify clear exit or graduation strategies and transitions to economic independence and greening of economy, among Social Protection system beneficiaries; viii) Develop a Research, Monitoring and Evaluation Systems for evidence based programming and policy formulation, and for the routine and periodic review and management of the Social Protection programmes; ix) Facilitate capacity building and institutional strengthening training programmes and reforms; x) Review the institutional and legislative frameworks for Social Protection; xi) Analyze Saint Lucia’s fiscal space and outline budgetary plan for affordable and sustainably financed Social Protection programmes; xii) Develop effective information, education and communication strategies for achieving equitable and sustainable social protection systems for all; xiii) Develop a common targeting mechanism for the effectively reaching poorest and most vulnerable population and to minimize errors of inclusion and exclusion; and xiv) Develop Standard Operation Manuals and Toolkits for achieving equity, efficiency as well as child sensitive and gender responsive programmes.
The Government of Saint Lucia recognizes that poverty is a multi-dimensional concept comprising of social, economic and environmental deprivation. Increasing environmental scarcities, risks and vulnerabilities, growing economic uncertainty and inequalities, and the continued existence of high rates of unemployment, are important factors for understanding and addressing poverty in Saint Lucia.