KINGSTON, Jamaica – Jamaica's government is moving to transition its post-Hurricane Melissa relief efforts from physical distribution to a voucher system by early in the New Year.
Dr. Rocky MeadeThis was disclosed by Permanent Secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister Dr. Rocky Meade during a recent sitting of the Public Administration and Appropriations Committee of Parliament.
He said following the passage of the hurricane, the Government needed to employ quick emergency procedures to deliver relief to the country, with a heavy focus on food.
“Now that we have done that quite a bit… we’re hoping… to have a change in how we assist the country. We want to give more purchasing power to those who are in need so that, as the businesses come back up, they can actually get the things they want and not just a package that we assume that might be, [where] they may have too much of one thing and not something else,” the Permanent Secretary stated.
“So we’re hoping to put purchasing power in their hands. The details of that are being worked out by the MLSS (Ministry of Labour and Social Security)… so they are looking at what I will loosely call a voucher system. But it doesn’t necessarily mean a piece of paper that has the word voucher on it… . It’s really putting purchasing power in the hands of citizens. We have had some meetings on how that could work, and the details of that are also being worked out,” he added.
Meade further stated that the Ministry will be providing guidance on the needs list and the prioritisation of beneficiaries, adding, “We are hoping to pivot to that modality of providing relief by the New Year.”
He said the team from the Ministry recently made a presentation on the initiative to Prime Minister, Dr. Andrew Holness, who asked them to “tweak a couple of things”.
“I can assure you there has been progress, and they (Ministry) have a product. But for some tweaks, [it] will be ready [for] rollout in January. I am reasonably confident that by the New Year, we’ll be able to roll something out,” Meade stated.
