Ecuador launches a pilot plan aimed at poverty elimination
A total of 300 families from the province of El Oro are part of a pilot project that will use the Poverty Stoplight. The project seeks to improve the quality of life of the rural agricultural sector, which is responsible for 8% of the GDP in Ecuador.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG) is leading the project in coordination with the Ministries of Economic and Social Inclusion, Education, and Public Health.
The implementation of the Poverty Stoplight will focus on the rural population in Ecuador that lives in poverty and in extreme poverty, 40% and 17.7% of the population respectively, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC), MAG said in a statement. According to Fundación Paraguaya, which has implemented the Stoplight in 23 countries, the tool consists of a survey made up of 50 indicators divided into 6 dimensions. The colors of a regular stoplight are used to represent three possible answers for each indicator (with red reflecting extreme poverty; yellow, poverty; and green, no poverty). With the tool, a diagnosis can be made. The results allow for an easy visualization of the user’s situation, showing the participating families their successes in green and areas of improvement in yellow and red. Based on those results, a life map is created and specific actions at the family and organizational levels are planned with achievable goals in the short and medium term. The government can then intervene through plans and projects to respond to their needs, explained the source.
The Stoplight will help farmers improve their quality of life, according to Johanna Morales, General Coordinator of the National Information System. “This tool will help families become self-aware of their reality, then take advantage of what is available, and finally take action to improve that reality,” she said.
According to Lourdes Aguero, Operations Manager for the Stoplight Program at Fundación Paraguaya, it is the farmer who makes an assessment of their situation and their living conditions with the Poverty Stoplight. “This,” Aguero said, “is the first step towards change: to recognize my reality and trace my path to a better future. The Stoplight seeks to elicit that change through its dimensions.” Aguero specified that in the case of farmers, the concept of farming should be transformed and converted into a tool for life improvement: “We want farmers to do well in their business, to have good productivity, but it is also important to know what they should do with the money they earn, and how it may help transform their reality.”
Under the pilot project, the Stoplight will initially be implemented with 300 families by September and it is expected to reach 1,000 families by the end of the year.
This content was originally published by Diario El Comercio of Ecuador. Click here to see the original publication.
