Efforts to effectively identify, quantify and monitor poverty have been ongoing for sometime in the Caribbean region. To-date a number of methodologies have been to some extent institutionalized namely:

Country Poverty Assessment (including more participatory assessment techniques)

Surveys of Living Conditions (SLCs)

One of the long term solutions to enhance affordable regular efficient and effective poverty monitoring is to institutionalise  a poverty monitoring approach and framework that represents a joint coordinated agreement by donors.

Given the results of the recent CWIQ pilot in Saint Lucia and its relative easiness to design and implement as well as its low cost, it is anticipated that the CWIQ could be integrated into a poverty monitoring system forming the basis for annual assessments.

It is also proposed that consideration be given to developing a core team of experts. At minimum, the team should comprise one survey statistician, one data processing expert and one analyst. The Core team can respond to countries on demand and improve substantively the quality of experts available to the region.