October 8, 2024 – BRIDGETOWN, Barbados: The Caribbean Development Bank’s (CDB) Basic Needs Trust Fund (BNTF), KoboToolbox, the World Bank (WB), the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin American and the Caribbean (UNECLAC) and the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF) will be hosting the second hybrid observance of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty on Thursday, October 17, 2024.
This year’s event will start off with a workshop on Improved Capacity for Data Collection and Analysis for Enhanced Project Monitoring and Evaluation from October 14-18 to be held in Jamaica. Key experts from the World Bank’s Geo-Enabling initiative for Monitoring and Supervision (GEMS) and KoboToolbox teams will jointly implement the workshop with over 60 participants from the BNTF Implementing Agencies, community development and disaster risk management officers from select CDB Borrowing Member Countries (BMCs), as well as other CDB project teams, and other partners.
The workshop will include a hybrid Symposium on October 17, which will highlight best practices and lessons learned while seeking to inspire and equip participants with practical strategies for implementing sustainable poverty reduction programmes. The global theme for the Day is Ending Social and Institutional Maltreatment Acting together for just, peaceful and inclusive societies.
“Based on the success of last year’s event, we decided to repeat the collaboration while also adding the capacity building element,” said CDB’s Division Chief, Social Sector Division, Martin Baptiste. “Collecting and analysing data accurately is crucial for informed decision-making to support poverty reduction, including in key domains such as environmental protection, healthcare and education.”
Mr. Baptiste indicated that interventions such as these allow for more targeted solutions to deliver the development results that CDB is aiming for, while also supporting the achievement of development goals in BMC’s.
“We are honoured to have the opportunity to collaborate with the Caribbean Development Bank and the World Bank in their efforts for poverty eradication. Initiatives like the international observance play a critical role in empowering communities with access to data technology and supporting sustainable and impactful development,” said Tino Kreutzer, Chief Operating and Innovation Officer at KoboToolbox.
The Symposium will feature presentations from the different partners on best practices, and lessons learnt from implementing projects to reduce poverty. It will also highlight the voices of vulnerable and beneficiary groups with testimonials from the BNTF, the Bank’s premier poverty reduction programme and its Enhanced Country Poverty Assessment programme.
“The GEMS initiative is part of the new World Bank Academy and aims to create a Public Good by creating capacity in Digital Development Monitoring. We are delighted to cooperate with the CDB and jointly leverage field-appropriate technology to enhance project effectiveness, development coordination, and poverty reduction for our client countries,” said Bernhard Metz, Program Manager, GEMS Initiative at the World Bank.
The UNECLAC team will be collaborating on this Observance with the other partners for the first time and will participate in the panel discussions and opening segment of the event.
“The Caribbean subregion is usually characterised as data-poor, not so much because the data do not exist, but because the data available are not sufficiently disseminated. This challenge is more prominent for poverty data. By improving the technical capacity of countries to collect, analyse, and disseminate poverty data, national strategies for poverty reduction will be evidence-informed, thus increasing their likelihood to be more effective in eradicating poverty,” said Diane Quarless, Director, UNECLAC Caribbean, while indicating that UNECLAC was pleased to partner and to contribute to strengthening the capacity of Caribbean countries to collect and analyse data that would enhance project monitoring and evaluation through the workshop and symposium.
