Social Protection Project

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The Social Protection Project will support Jamaica in strengthening its social protection system. To this end, it will: (i) further improve the effectiveness of the Program of Advancement through Health and Education (PATH) to foster investment by poor families in human capital accumulation; (ii) develop a structured system for assisting working-age members of PATH eligible households seek and retain employment; (iii) enable the formulation of a reform program for the public sector pension schemes; and (iv) develop a holistic social protection strategy. There are four components to the project. The first component is the improving effectiveness of the PATH. This component will support the PATH through: (a) co-financing for conditional cash transfers to children 0 to 19 years-old (child grants); and (b) technical improvements to the program. The second component is the building capacity for the Steps-to-Work (StW) program. This component will support capacity building within the Ministry of Labor and Social Security (MLSS) to implement a new initiative, the StW Program which will target working age members of PATH eligible households for referral to the relevant support services to enable them to seek and retain employment. The StW Program, beginning as a two-year pilot in six parishes to target approximately 12,000 members of PATH households, will be assessed at the end of the piloting period. In addition to the process evaluations financed by the project, the Government will mobilize other funding sources to carry out an impact evaluation. The third component is improving the public sector pension system administration and building capacity for reform. The pension component will support two core sets of activities focused on the schemes for public sector workers: (i) preparation of a reform program; and (ii) improving administration and information systems. Finally, the fourth component is the development of holistic social protection strategy. This component will support the Government in developing a holistic social protection strategy to inform decision-making on the appropriate policies and programs to address social risks and vulnerabilities within the population.