PIOJ wants to track urban-rural divide
Aiming for progress on new SRD Index by June 2025
Published:Sunday | December 15, 2024 | 12:06 AM
Living in the city offers residents greater access to commerce, but it comes with trade-offs such as higher rent, transportation costs and exposure to crime.
Recognising these challenges, the Planning Institute of Jamaica, PIOJ, aims to track urban-rural disparities through the creation of a Sustainable Rural Development Index, SRD Index, which it is seeking a consultant to design.
The agency wants the index to “capture sustainable development in Jamaica’s rural areas”. It said the SRD Index would monitor progress over time, rather than provide a one-off report.
The index will measure rural employment levels, as well as rural housing quality. Additional metrics will focus on education attainment, social conditions, and crime rates in rural communities.
PIOJ aims to bring the consultant on board in January, who will be expected to devise the methodology of the index by June 2025.
The agency told the Financial Gleaner that the index to be developed is “not intended” to be a measure of poverty. Poverty rates by parish are already captured in the Jamaica Survey of Living Conditions parish report.
Rural areas remain central to Jamaica’s economic progress, especially with agriculture playing a key role in the economy. However, these regions lag in several social and economic metrics. The PIOJ’s initiative is meant to guide the response to these challenges, in order to prevent the negative effects of rural stagnation, including urban sprawl and environmental degradation.
“Rural areas still hold much relevance to development overall,” the PIOJ tender document emphasised.
This initiative aligns with the United Nations’ 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, particularly goals such as ‘no poverty’ and ‘zero hunger’, which also support Jamaica’s Vision 2030 agenda.