$1.6 Billion Allocated to the Social Protection Project

A sum of $1.6 billion has been allocated in the 2016/17 Estimates of Expenditure, currently before the House of Representatives, towards the continuation of the Integrated Support to the Jamaica Social Protection Strategy project.

The project, which commenced in November 2015, is being implemented by the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, through funding from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

It aims to support, protect and promote the human capital accumulation of the Programme of Advancement through Health and Education (PATH) beneficiaries.

It also seeks to strengthen the overall capacity of and to improve quality and access to the network of social services provided by the Ministry to the poor and vulnerable population.

The allocation for this year will go towards the provision of cash transfer to PATH education beneficiaries and continued implementation of the parenting conditionality for families with children between ages two and six years old.

Additionally, the project aims to expand the welfare-to-work schemes with on- the-job training and strengthening of Electronic Labour Exchange programmes by continued strengthening of institutional capacity for active labour market policies.

Other targets are: updating the Beneficiary Management Information System (BMIS) and Bank Reconciliation System (BRS) in keeping with good financial management practices; and modernising the provision of social security services by commencing the implementation of a document and client management system.

Up to December 2015, payments were made to PATH education beneficiaries for the period August and October 2015.

The project is slated to end in October 2020.