About the CALC
WHAT IS THE CALC?
The Government of Barbados in conjunction with the Caribbean Development Bank is currently conducting a study to determine how people in Barbados live with respect to important quality of life factors such as levels of income and expenditure, consumption, employment, education, access to social and public services, among others. The information on living conditions (such as income distribution) will also help us to identify where there is poverty in Barbados and to understand the nature, levels and effect of such poverty, so that we can plan better for the reduction of poverty.
The Country Assessment of Living Conditions or simply, the CALC, is the first exercise of its type being embarked upon by the Government of Barbados since the Inter American Development Bank study on poverty in Barbados which was published in 1998. This document, Poverty and Income Distribution in Barbados, identified a number of key markers with respect to the study of poverty on the island. Some of the main conclusions arising out of this study at the time were:
- The Poverty Line in Barbados was BDS$ 5,503 per capita per year
- Approximately 7000 households in Barbados existed on income below this threshold
- Poverty affected around 13.9 % of the population
- Poverty tended to be concentrated around the urban areas
- Female Headed households represent nearly 60% of poor households nationally
The Government and the Ministry of Social Care, Constituency Empowerment, Urban and Rural Development recognises that while this information is useful, the information from the Poverty And Income Distribution in Barbados can no longer be relied upon for the planning and implementation of contemporary social policies and programmes. The CALC is intended to update the information available to social planners and to chart the way forward for social policy in Barbados.
HOW DOES THE CALC OPERATE?
The Country Assessment of Living Conditions is a national study formulated to research the current conditions and factors affecting the welfare of all persons residing in Barbados.
The principal objective of the CALC is to assess the living conditions across the entire society. It places particular emphasis on the identification of causes of poverty while providing an assessment of the type and magnitude of poverty currently experienced in the island. The CALC will be used to obtain information on a number of important social and economic areas such as:
- National Distribution of income and wealth (including levels of personal and household income)
- Patterns of consumption and expenditure
- Levels of health, education and training and access to basic social services
- Living environment and conditions
- Social protection and economic security
- Perceptions of well-being
- Levels of community involvement and participation
- Coping strategies utilized by the vulnerable within society
- Governance and participation
- Employment and entrepreneurship
- Security of life and property
The CALC comprises four modules:
- The Survey of Living Conditions (SLC). The SLC is an objective assessment of persons’ living circumstances that seeks to obtain information on household expenditure and income, housing, labour force, education, disability and other socio-economic characteristics. The SLC is the component of the CALC which is used to generate important development data which will allow us to establish a national poverty line, an indigence line and an absolute poverty line for Barbados. It also provides the national estimates of poverty and inequality, demographic information on the characteristics, extent, geographic concentration and possible causes of poverty. The information will be treated confidentially.
- The Participatory Poverty Assessment (PPA). The PPA uses participatory research methodologies to assess the subjective feelings of well being within identified groups within society. It collects and analyses information on the overall living conditions and coping strategies in marginalised communities and groups such as female-headed households, the elderly and seasonal workers. PPA aims to provide insight into aspects related to marginalisation, voicelessness and powerlessness of the poor and economically underprivileged.
- The Macro Social and Economic Assessment (MSEA). This is a comparative tool of analysis which seeks to analyse the impact of historical, social and economic currents on Barbadian living standards. This component of the CALC looks at a number of issues such as the changes in the international and regional environments which have impacted upon the socio-economic landscape of Barbados. It also examines a number of issues including changes in the Barbadian economic structure, growth in the economy and patterns of social expenditure.
- The Institutional Analysis (IA) looks at the institutional arrangements within social care and poverty reduction programmes. The IA assesses their capacity and ability to implement programmes intended to target poverty. It also reviews the impact of these interventions on poor and vulnerable groups so as to find out the extent to which they have improved living conditions and resulted in a reduction of poverty.
WHAT IS THE PURPOSE of the CALC?
The major purpose of the CALC is the improvement of living conditions through, for example, better planning aimed at poverty reduction and the raising of living standards, which is especially critical within Barbados' most vulnerable groups.
It is recognised that recent global issues like the current worldwide financial crisis have had a negative impact on the people living in Small Island Developing States (SIDS) like Barbados. This has led to greater unemployment and a growth in the number of ‘working poor’ in some countries. It has also led to increases in those who have had to seek social assistance and other welfare benefits. In many cases, it has increased the levels of deprivation faced by the more vulnerable sectors of society such as single parent headed households, the elderly, the sick and the disabled.
In this context, poverty has become a major topic for public discussion. As in all countries that have undertaken such an exercise, it is intended that the information gathered by the CALC will assist in the shaping of policies, strategies and programmes that results in a reduction in the extent and severity of poverty experienced in Barbados while impacting positively on the lives of the vulnerable.
Similar projects have been conducted since the mid 1990's in a number of other Caribbean countries with the assistance of the Caribbean Development Bank and other multi lateral development agencies such as the World Bank, the Inter American Development Bank (IADB), the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and the UK Department for International Development (DfID).
