Min­is­ter of So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices Don­na Cox has em­pha­sised that the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic trans­formed this coun­try’s ap­proach to so­cial pro­tec­tion, dri­ving re­forms that make sup­port sys­tems more re­silient and adapt­able than ever be­fore.

“COVID-19 was a wake-up call,” Cox said at the XI Min­is­te­r­i­al Fo­rum for De­vel­op­ment in Latin Amer­i­ca and the Caribbean in Bar­ba­dos last week.

“It forced us to re­think our en­tire so­cial safe­ty net to en­sure no one is left be­hind, es­pe­cial­ly in times of cri­sis.”

Min­is­ter Cox de­tailed how Trinidad and To­ba­go ramped up its sup­port for the vul­ner­a­ble, not on­ly by in­creas­ing the scope of ex­ist­ing pro­grammes but by boost­ing grant amounts in re­sponse to the pan­dem­ic’s eco­nom­ic im­pact.

“We ex­pand­ed and strength­ened our pro­grammes be­cause peo­ple’s lives de­pend­ed on it,” she ex­plained, un­der­scor­ing the Gov­ern­ment’s com­mit­ment to pri­ori­tis­ing cit­i­zens’ needs amid fu­ture chal­lenges.

The So­cial Pro­tec­tion Ecosys­tem in T&T now in­cludes 13 gov­ern­ment min­istries and 120 pro­grammes, each aligned with the UN Sus­tain­able De­vel­op­ment Goals and the coun­try’s Vi­sion 2030, she said. This sys­tem, Cox not­ed, en­sures rapid as­sis­tance to vul­ner­a­ble groups through part­ner­ships with NGOs and gov­ern­ment agen­cies.

“Our ap­proach has be­come mul­ti-pronged and deeply col­lab­o­ra­tive, al­low­ing us to de­liv­er tar­get­ed sup­port to those who need it most,” she stat­ed.

Look­ing to the fu­ture, Cox high­light­ed sev­er­al dig­i­tal ad­vance­ments to trans­form so­cial ser­vices in T&T. “We’re talk­ing about re­al-time sup­port, with ini­tia­tives like the So­cial In­di­ca­tor Reg­istry and Na­tion­al Elec­tron­ic ID,” she said.

“With the So­cial Ser­vices Man­age­ment Sys­tem and Dig­i­tal Wal­let, we’ll be able to de­liv­er aid faster, more trans­par­ent­ly, and more ef­fi­cient­ly than ever.”

She called these tools “a leap for­ward” in the Gov­ern­ment’s mis­sion to mod­ernise so­cial sup­port sys­tems, en­abling in­stant da­ta ac­cess and time­ly re­spons­es to crises. Tem­po­rary grants for dis­as­ter re­lief, flood aid for farm­ers, in­come sup­port, and emer­gency loans for small busi­ness­es are now key com­po­nents of Gov­ern­ment’s dis­as­ter readi­ness, she said.

Cox al­so em­pha­sised the im­por­tance of re­gion­al col­lab­o­ra­tion, urg­ing lead­ers across Latin Amer­i­ca and the Caribbean to share best prac­tices for re­duc­ing pover­ty and build­ing re­silience.

“In times of glob­al un­cer­tain­ty, we must sup­port each oth­er. Stronger part­ner­ships mean stronger na­tions,” she said.

— Rhon­dor Dowlat