Background and Objectives

 

The Program for the Improvement of Surveys and Measurement of Living Conditions in Latin America and the Caribbean(MECOVI) was officially launched on December 1996 in Asuncion, Paraguay.  The overall mission, as defined, was to support the generation of quality information related to the living conditions of the population in terms of coverage, opportunity and relevance, in order to assist in the design of better public policies.  This is done through specific activities at country level, and activities at regional level.

 

The Program for the Improvement of Surveys and Measurement of Living Conditions in Latin America and the Caribbean is based on collaborative spirit and draws upon extensive consultations between management and technical staff of the three co-financing institutions: The World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).  In addition, the program has benefited from the timely support of other institutions, including the UNDP and the Soros Foundation, and bilateral donors such as Holland, Great Britain, Canada, Denmark, USA, Germany, Japan, Norway and Sweden.  For information on donor partners, go to: MECOVI-IDB and MECOVI-CEPAL.

 

Objective

The overall objective of the Program for the Improvement of Surveys and Measurement of Living Conditions in Latin America and the Caribbean is to support the generation of quality information related to the living conditions of the population in terms of coverage, opportunity and relevance.

 

This kind of information and capacity is required in order to support the design, monitoring and evaluation of better public policies, programs and projects aimed at reducing poverty and at promoting social equity.

 

To achieve this goal, in-country support activities are implemented to establish a system of household surveys that can generate easy-to-access information on a timely and comparable manner, as well as enhance the quality, and the geographic and thematic coverage of such surveys.