Email

Print

Judith Alpuche, CEO Human Development
"A number of countries expressed an interest in taking a closer at BOOST. I think because we are close on size especially to the Eastern Caribbean states."

Laura Blanco, Project Officer - OAS
"The OAS hopes to contribute to the enhancement of the knowledge base on participating countries in the development and management of social protection programming."

And while the OAS is funding the visit - the BOOST programme is all funded by the Government of Belize. It costs about five million dollars annually to provide BOOST to 13 thousand persons across the country. In a country with 41% poverty, that's really just a drop in the bucket, but Judith Alpuche explained how it targets the most needy - hopefully without political interference:

Judith Alpuche, CEO Human Development
"What we have done with BOOST is really trying to put on the ground a program that is technically sound and objective in its targeting, so that we can really focus on those who really need it and the ones that get it. Once families are screen as I said and you reach that criteria and then we start with the process of paying you - the payments are link to where your child is in school etc., if it's a girl or if it's a boy because we do have differentiative payments by sex and by level of school."

Jules Vasquez
"This is because boys have a higher dropout rate?"

Judith Alpuche, CEO Human Development
"We are trying to incentivize boys. Our statistics show that boys fall out of school at a faster rate than girls and they don't transition as well to high school, so we are trying to incentivize boys by giving them a little bit more than girls. If you child misses school, unexcused absence and the child is not going to school, 85% of the time we cut your benefit by half and the second month it gets cut completely. It also triggers a social work response because the point is not to penalize people, but to really have carrot. So we operate from the model that of the child is not going to school two months, there is something going on and that family may need support, so it triggers a social work response."

Ivan Yerovi, UNICEF Country Representative
"The impact of social protection in children's development last long beyond childhood. It increases adult productivity and contributes to break in the intergenerational cycle of poverty."

Hon. Anthony "Boots" Martinez
"I know that BOOST and the other social safety net programs that this government has put in place have made a big difference in the lives of many of my constituents and for many families across the country."

Judith Alpuche
"It's a paradigm shift in thinking for Belize because we believe and what we have done really is looking at area reps as a legitimate source of referral along with school principals, along with everybody and you send someone and they go through the process of screening and if they meet the criteria then they are put on the program. If not we look to see if there is some other programs that more meets their needs."

"These programs represent quite an investment in public funds and so we have to ensure that they are well targeted and well run because that's the only way they work, if the people who really need it are the ones that are on it."

"We have set the benefit at a level where it provide support but it doesn't provide what the literature calls "perverse incentive" in that you don't want to work."

The study tour - as it is called is a three day event.