Secretary of State for poverty alleviation, Ambassador Dick Esparon, says: |29 May 2017

‘We will overcome poverty with a community approach’

Seychelles will eventually win the fight against poverty, the Secretary of State for poverty alleviation, Ambassador Dick Esparon, has confidently declared.

But for this to happen he has added, the adoption of a novel inclusive process with a bottom-to-top approach involving the community and all concerned is necessary. This instead of the traditional strategy of imposing on people through fragmented actions. The new methodology, he adds, will deal with the problem which he feels is destroying our society.

As a first step in the implementation of the new approach, the office of the Secretary of State for poverty alleviation is organising a survey which will help map out the nature and extent of poverty in Seychelles. The first phase of this district profiling which is being conducted with the partnership of the National Bureau of Statistics and the Ministry of Local Government is currently ongoing in the central 2 region of Victoria. The region regroups the districts of Mont Fleuri, Plaisance, Roche Caïman and Les Mamelles. It has been chosen as the area to kickstart the exercise as the four districts have been identified with the highest incidence of poverty, with a poverty head count index of 52%.

The survey is itself being conducted with a community approach with the enumerators being actual members of their community. The reason, Ambassador Esparon explains, is that due to its multidimensional nature, poverty alleviation warrants a cross-sectorial approach. It becomes thus a shared responsibility and the whole society has to be engaged in the process.

While addressing the surveyors during a recent training session led by the National Bureau of Statistics, Mr Esparon described their action as a “noble work in the community spirit to help others and bring a difference in their lives”. 

“Through the data you are going to collect, you will flag the problems faced by the community and this will lead to concerted actions through developing and implementing the right strategy to address the poverty problem at all levels. Data is important as there are too many perceptions and beliefs on the question. So you have to meet the people concerned to know their problems. Many structures exist but we find no solution as the problem is not dealt with at community level. You know your district better than anybody else, so you are going to bring the desired change and make of your district a new one by starting with the most important thing which is identifying the problem,” he told the group of about 50 interviewers.

The Secretary of State went on to stress that poverty is a question of human rights and that we cannot continue to permit the violation of the rights of our brothers and sisters. At the same time, he insists that while it is necessary to put in place necessary structures to identify poor people and solve their problems by breaking the cycle of poverty, it is equally important to bring them out of welfare through targeted actions specific to each and every one of them.

As for local government principal secretary Marie-Celine Vidot, she has said her ministry has joined in the fight against poverty as it wants to be engaged in bringing a solution to a problem of direct concern.

“We are engaged in community life and want to bring government closer to the community, give support to the districts and render the life of the people more comfortable. We have to do this with the collaboration of partners and volunteers to bring our contribution and support, in this particular case specifically to help address the issue of poverty. As the ministry with direct responsibility for the community, we remain engaged in bringing solutions to the problem. We are concerned by the problem and that is why our employees and volunteers sacrifice their evenings and weekends,” she said.

After the surveys, it is hoped that in the future the district administrations will be able to collect statistics on a day-to-day basis, with the main focus on children who generally find themselves in the direct line of poverty.