Saint Lucia govt adopts shock responsive social protection

Saint Lucia: Pandemics, extreme weather events and natural disasters can lead to shocks to the economy and lives of persons around the world. These shocks can lead to issues such as unemployment, decreased income and threats to food security.

COVID-19 and inflation have highlighted the speed at which the world’s trajectory can be altered. Policy and Program Officer in the Ministry of Equity, Social Justice and Empowerment, Eulampius Frederick, describes the adaptive shock response mechanism aimed at addressing these events.

“Shock responsive social protection is a special form of social protection where you adapt your current social protection programs to prepare for, mitigate and respond to co-variant shocks. Co-variant shocks affect large sections of the population, perhaps even an entire region—things like hurricanes, natural disasters or even the recent pandemic.”

The shock-responsive social protection mechanism is an integral component of the updated National Social Protection Policy.

Furthermore, the Ministry of Education, Sustainable Development, Innovation, Science, Technology and Vocational Training is aware of situations at various schools which have sparked public discussion as it relates to issues of grooming in schools on the island.

The Ministry wished to assure the general public that it remains committed to reviewing the present positions with a view to addressing the current issues from a holistic standpoint.

As such, the Ministry is committed to ensuring that an evaluation of this nature includes the thorough participation of all relevant stakeholders in determining the best way forward.