Two major components of the Government of The Bahamas’ social assistance programme will be consolidated into the much-touted RISE Programme, thereby ensuring greater efficiency and effectiveness in further meeting the needs of the country’s most vulnerable persons.
Minister of Social Services and Community Development, the Hon. Melanie Sharon Griffin said the Food and Uniform Assistance Programmes will be consolidated into the RISE (Renewing, Inspiring, Sustaining and Empowering) Programme, which should prove to be even more beneficial to persons qualifying for assistance under the programme.
The RISE Programme, also known as the Conditional Cash Transfer Programme, is part of the Government’s Social Safety Net Reform Programme and is aimed at promoting human capital development, while alleviating poverty by focusing on changing behaviours in order to improve educational achievement and a healthier lifestyle among poor households.
“Ultimately, the reform will ensure that as an agency, we (the Ministry of Social Services and Community Development through the Department of Social Services) are more responsive, efficient and effective in meeting the needs of the most vulnerable,” Mrs. Griffin said.
“A cash grant to qualified households will give the beneficiaries of RISE the flexibility to manage their funds to the optimal benefit of their homes.”
Addressing Parliamentarians during a working luncheon at the British Colonial Hilton Hotel Wednesday, January 20, Minister Griffin said it was important for those parliamentarians to be aware of the Government of The Bahamas’ continued efforts to break the cycle of poverty within the Commonwealth so that they in turn can make constituents throughout the country aware of what is being done. Members of both sides attended the luncheon.
The Social Safety Net Programme is expected to allow the Government to comprehensively address poverty by combining the assets of the Ministry of Social Services and Community Development and the Department of Social Services, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and the Ministry of Health and is designed to give families receiving assistance from the Department of Social Services “a fighting chance to rise out of poverty.”
“It is our conclusion therefore that the best way to break the cycle of poverty on generations of Bahamian families is to improve the education level of the family and of course, to provide better healthcare,” Minister Griffin said.
A 2013 Bahamas Household Expenditure Survey, conducted by officials of the Department of Statistics, revealed that in The Bahamas – like many other countries - there is a direct correlation between poverty and the level of education and access to healthcare.
Officials at the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology have already identified that lack of school attendance, rising drop-out rates, low grades and low graduation rates from secondary schools all need to be further addressed in order to fully address poverty levels, while the Ministry of Health has identified child obesity as a problem.
Mrs. Griffin said the intent of the Social Safety Net Programme is to provide all families -- who must qualify for the Conditional Cash Transfer Programme (CCT) through a Proxy Means Test – with a base amount to be used for their households. In order to achieve “add-on amounts,” however, parents must ensure that their children attend school at least 90 per cent of school days. Bonus amounts will also be given to every child on the Programme who graduates from Secondary School. Where they are failing in school, children must attend remedial classes.
[The Proxy Means Test is a computerized assessment of persons seeking assistance who are given a score based on a number of variables that are used to identify poor persons. Social Services officials say the Proxy Means Test is a more Objective way of determining assistance as opposed to the way it was done previously which made it more Subjective. Add-ons are bonus amounts given to persons meeting the requirements of the Conditional Cash Transfer Programme.]
“To date, over 800 recipients of the food assistance programme have been administered the Proxy Means test,” Mrs. Griffin told Parliamentarians. We also introduced RISE to North Andros last September and to date, we have administered the Proxy Means Test to over 100 households in North Andros. The next step for those eligible for RISE will be the enrollment, which we will commence shortly at the Wulff Road Centre.
“As we move forward, persons are being encouraged to participate in the registration process as we work towards improving the levels of health and education among our families as together we rise,” Mrs. Griffin said.
By Matt Maura | Bahamas Information Services
