Govt spends $120m on food cards

Published: Friday September 12, 2008

Government has spent more than $120 million on its food card programme in the last two years to reduce the number of people living in poverty in T&T, said Social Development Minister Dr Amery Browne.

“While a provision of a cash transfer to supplement the food bill of the vulnerable in the short-term is necessary, what is more desirable is sustainable poverty reduction and the improvement in the human capital base of the country,” Browne said.

“In this regard, the conditional and developmental aspects of the programme are being developed with a greater emphasis on the holistic needs of the targeted families.”

Browne was speaking at the opening ceremony of the Caribbean conference on horizontal co-operation in social protection at the Hyatt Regency Trinidad, Dock Road, Port-of-Spain, yesterday.

The conference showcased, Puente in the Caribbean Initiative, which was being piloted in T&T, Jamaica and St Lucia.

It was part of the Chile Solidario System, a five-year poverty intervention strategy designed to treat families living in extreme poverty.

Browne said information from the Puente in the Caribbean Initiative was being used to design a more effective approach on poverty reduction assistance through its targeted Conditional Cash Transfer Programme (CCTP).

He said that there were more than 27,000 CCTP cardholders, which ensured food security for more than 100,000 people.

Browne added that since the 2006 inception of the programme, more that $120 million had been spent.

Among those in attendance were Alfonzo Quinonez, executive secretary at the Organisation of American States, (OAS), Integral Development Unit, Pablo Coloma Correa, executive director of the Solidarity and Social Investment Fund, Chile, and Jose Gabriel Zepeda, ambassador of Chile to T&T.


Source: Trinidad Guardian Newspapers
http://www.guardian.co.tt/business1.html