Siobhán has responded to the draft Anti-Poverty Strategy using the results from the Toolkit engagement with women. This engagement highlighted serious concerns about the lack of new actions contained in the draft plan to address rising poverty levels in Northern Ireland.
The Consortium also raised serious concerns about the lack of lived experience included in the draft Strategy which is particularly absent from the proposed commitments in the draft. The Consortium voiced its disappointment that the Department has not taken valuable learning opportunities from the NI Audit Office and Public Accounts Committee reports which called for the need for Strategies to have measurable and timebound targets and outcomes, the need for ringfenced funding and the critical need to engage with people experiencing poverty.
The Consortium recommended that the draft Anti-Poverty Strategy needs to be completely rewritten using the evidence-based recommendations from the Anti-Poverty Strategy Expert Advisory Panel and the Anti-Poverty Strategy Group.
You can read the Consortium’s response to the draft Anti-Poverty Strategy here:
