Beyond numbers, data allows more concrete solutions

The Poverty Stoplight is a Paraguayan tool created by Martín Burt, social entrepreneur and executive director of the Fundación Paraguaya, it is applied in more than 30 countries around the world. It has an innovative methodology that helps each family identify their needs and create more concrete solutions. At the same time, it is of the utmost importance that the Government provides all the basic needs to generate real impacts.

 

 

The workshop, “How to use data in plans that generate social impact?”, held at Cerrito Forum 2021, was led by Nancy Ramos, Manager of Methodological Development of the Poverty Stoplight of the Fundación Paraguaya, with comments from David Riveros García, founder and Executive Director of the ‘reAcción’ organization and moderation from the Editor of the Economy section of the newspaper Abc Color, Gladys Benítez.

 

 

“The data is much more than mere numbers,” said Ramos, when projecting the characteristics and work that are developed through the Stoplight, which helps to better identify the areas and specific needs of families. She indicated that the more data available, the more precise and direct a poverty elimination policy will be possible.

 

 

One of the great potentials that can be exploited through this program is to integrate data, increase precision, understand and manage the visualized situation of families in new ways. “By creating solutions from this, we give families purpose and the motivation they need today,” she said.

 

 

Faced with the question of how to massively reach this program throughout the country, she replied that it lies in joining more forces, generating awareness and participation: “Make families protagonists,” she added. To create public policies, she assured that the more data available, the greater pressure can be applied for this to expand, and the elimination of poverty can be achieved.

 

 

“In the same way, the Government must provide all basic needs, although there are developments and approaches to find indicators to fight poverty. In this sense, it is important that public policies for this objective are financed, so that they are sustained over time”, Riveros intervened.

 

 

He stressed the role played by the media regarding open data, and that having this tool should be exploited and made more accessible publications in audiovisuals and infographics. “We need the media to get more involved and digest the data for the communities, to raise awareness. It is not enough to have open data, otherwise there is no political cost, ”he asserted.

 

 

He added that it is necessary to foster collective and sustained processes to impact and make interesting changes. This is to demand an end to corruption, with public policies that eliminate poverty and increase the development of our country.

 

 

“This initiative of Fundación Paraguaya must be carried out, also as political pressure, with collective action so that the citizens who are benefiting from this process can exist collectively, and that the Government fulfills its function of guaranteeing basic rights”, he concluded.