The first phase of Cayman’s The National Assessment of Living Conditions has come to a close.
The project’s goal is to find out as much information as possible on the day-to-day lives of vulnerable groups in society.
The information gathered will guide policy and financing decisions for years to come in the Cayman Islands.
‘Our goal is to track and then analyze people’s direct experiences with poverty,’ said Leonard Dilbert, a member of the 20-person National Assessment coordinating team that heads up a contingent of nearly 300 staff and volunteers.
The programme kicked off in January 2007, when 42 volunteer enumerators and a dozen community facilitators began training for their new roles.
Sporting bright blue NALC team member shirts, enumerators spent April, May and part of June collecting data from 1,000 households and over 3,000 individuals.
Enumerators used a questionnaire and budget survey designed by KAIRI Consultants, the statisticians and demographers who are acting as lead researchers on the project.
Led by Mr. Ralph Henry, KAIRI has helped train volunteers to conduct similar studies across the Caribbean.
Enumerators also had households fill out a daily diary over a number of weeks to record such aspects of daily life as access to services, schooling, healthcare and transport.
At the same time the door-to-door survey was taking place, facilitators convened focus group meetings with members of communities that are considered particularly vulnerable. Individual attention was paid to children, the elderly, the unemployed, men, women, and the physically challenged to find out in more detail the specific challenges these particular groups face.
‘I’d like to commend our facilitators who put in such an effort to ensure enough participants attended the meetings by stressing the importance of the information being gathered,’ said Chief Health and Human Services Officer and National Assessment Chair Diane Montoya.
In addition to the community information, NALC researchers also met with close to 70 businesses, organisations, government agencies, and service clubs to get a sense of how they impact the communities they serve.
‘We also had to ensure that relevant government departments were kept up to date on the process, as they are eventually going to be impacted by the broad reach of the information being gathered,’ said Mr. Dilbert.
That’s because the researchers are not only gathering information on day to day expenses, issues and problems that vulnerable groups face, but are also interested in other, less tangible questions.
‘For example, we want to know what the human impact is on the physical environment, and, at the same time, the environment’s impact on the people that inhabit it,’ said Mr. Dilbert.
‘That’s because depending on where and how you live, you are more vulnerable to natural disasters, and it also impacts things like how you are perceived, and your property values.’
Now that the data has been collected, staff and volunteers have begun the hefty task of inputting it into computer databases so that researchers can access it for analysis. Members of the Economics and Statistics Office are helping out with this step.
In order to assist the lead researchers, the NALC coordinating team will also be undergoing training in early October to learn how to analyze the collected data themselves.
‘Like the training the enumerators undertook for their work in the field, this training session is a form of capacity-building, in that the people involved will be able to take what they have learned from this one particular study and apply it in various ways in the future,’ says Mr. Dilbert.
Once the researchers have analyzed the NALC data, a draft report will be produced on the findings, which will be taken back to the participants and communities surveyed for comment before a final version is presented to Cabinet.
‘That’s also when the programme for action will be set out,’ said Mr. Dilbert.
While it may be the plan for action that Cayman may be waiting for, Mr. Dilbert says every phase of the project is equally important.
‘The quality of what happens at each stage impacts the quality of the later stages,’ he said.
‘So the developmental stage is crucial to the final stage, even though the immediate and direct public benefit is not as visible as it will be later on when the report is presented and the recommendations are put into action.’
Mrs. Montoya says she is delighted with the progress of the NALC survey process so far.
‘The whole initiative has been extremely successful to date, and we have to give a lot of credit to the public for being as helpful as they were in providing us with vital information,’ she said.
The final report is expected to be completed for presentation to Cabinet before the Government’s next strategic budget retreat close to the end of 2007.
Related Videos
