Is it correct to state that 1.1 million Jamaicans living in poverty?

Yesterday’s post went up quickly as I had a busy day. As a result, I did not have time to do the research I would normally do. I was dubious of the story- it was single-sourced and appeared to take at face value the results of a study that made a whole lot of qualitative judgment-based recommendations. (The study was conducted by Dr. Alanzo Smith of Adventist Family Life Ministries).

For example:

Smith highlighted that in order for intergenerational poverty to be alleviated, there must be strengthened cooperation with family systems, a reduction in teenage pregnancy, reduction in single female-headed households, reduction of family size, avoidance of withdrawing children from school, reduction of tolerance to criminal activity, reduction of learned helplessness, building stronger families, and a reduction in family regression.

Here is a bit more about the Adventist Family Ministries. the organization Dr. Alanzo Smith is associated with (the individual who conducted the study):

Many of you, for the very first time, are Family Ministries (FM) coordinators for your local church. Like any other experience that is new to us, we are often somewhat fearful – we don’t want to fall flat on our faces in front of a live audience; we want to succeed.

Truth be told, you have just accepted an awesome responsibility. And if you are fearful, you’ve got a right to be. Since families are the nucleus of society and the church, helping your congregation to engage in experiences to strengthen family life, regardless of how these families are configured, is a big task. But, it is a rewarding and blessed work.

So this is clearly research with an agenda. Nothing wrong with that if it is clearly stated and understood. However, there is no link to the report and not much information about Dr. Smith.

Also, the story did not define “poverty line”, which is problematic. According to the World Bank, poverty is a sweeping term that can be broken down, but in general is defined as

Poverty lines are cut-off points separating the poor from the non-poor. They can be monetary (e.g. a certain level of consumption) or non-monetary (e.g. a certain level of literacy). The use of multiple lines can help in distinguishing different levels of poverty.

A 2010 World Bank report found that 17.6 per cent of Jamaicans live below the poverty line. This would fall far short of the 1.1 million stated in the story.

Delving a little deeper, the World Bank found that in 2005, 8.5 per cent of people lived on less than $1.25 per day and 1.5 per cent lived on less than $2.00 per day. (Forgive me if I am reading the chart wrong, my political science stats days are behind me). (Of course, by this measure, this would amount to nowhere near to 1.1 million Jamaicans).

That poverty exists here in Jamaica is indisputable (read fellow blogger and economist Dennis Jones’ post on this topic here). It is in your face from the minute you step out the door up until your return home at night. But there are clearly wildly varying levels of poverty and I’m not sure the government has a handle on it all. In any case, hopefully this post fleshes out a headline that certainly grabbed some attention, but did not provide any clarity on an important issue. This post also hopes to highlight the responsibility of journalists and headline writers to provide a fulsome, accurate report with full disclosures, space and time permitting. If the latter two resources are not available, perhaps the story is best killed, as people used to say.