The Regional Government will hold a public session to present the proposal for a Regional Strategy to Combat Poverty and Social Exclusion in Ponta Delgada on December 11.
 
The session will take place at Roberto Ivens Basic Education School. It will be attended by various institutions, associations, organisations and citizens that have participated in the pre-consultation of the civil society held in January this year.
 
It will also be attended by some of the national experts consulted in the preparatory works for the definition of this new tool.
 
This initiative, regarded as structural in the development of the Region and innovative at national level, should be based on a broad consensus. Accordingly, the document will be available for public consultation on the Regional Government Portal on the same day. It will be accessible to all Azoreans until January 31, with the respective diagnosis.
 
This Strategy will be implemented over the time horizon of 2018-2028. It defines four major strategic priorities: ensure a process of comprehensive and inclusive development for all children and young people from the beginning of their lives, reinforce social cohesion in the Region, promoting territorial intervention and ensure adequate knowledge on the phenomenon of poverty in the archipelago.
 
The implementation of these priorities will be carried out through biannual action plans; the first one will be in force in 2018-2019.
 
These plans will include all the measures and actions to be developed, the goals to be achieved, the resources to be developed and the entities responsible for their implementation in the various domains of governance. Some of these measures are already evident in the document to be presented.
 
They will primarily focus on preventive actions aimed at avoiding the persistence of the phenomenon so that we may hinder the intergenerational reproduction of poverty.
 
The document is based on the strengthening of coordination and coherence of public policies in order to ensure the well-being and the improvement of the quality of life of the Azoreans, namely those who are most vulnerable, as the foundation of a developed, inclusive and cohesive society.
 
Furthermore, it will count on the collaboration of distinguished national professionals in the most relevant areas for this theme, who will be part of the Scientific Committee. This body will be responsible for the scientific monitoring on the measures and actions to be implemented under the action plans.
 
In the area of sociology, the members of the Committee are as follows: Fernando Diogo, a sociologist at the University of the Azores and coordinator of the book "Poverty and Social Exclusion in Portugal"; Sérgio Aires, sociologist and President of the European Anti-Poverty Network; Manuel Sarmento, sociologist and professor at the University do Minho, an international specialist in the area of childhood, namely of child poverty.
 
In the field of economics, the document counts of the collaboration of the following experts: Carlos Farinha Rodrigues, economist at the Higher Institute of Economics and Business Management and coordinator of the study "Income Inequality and Poverty in Portugal"; José Manuel Henriques, economist at the Higher Institute of Labour and Business Sciences and monitor of various Community programmes to combat poverty; Nuno Ornelas Martins, economist and professor at the Catholic University of Porto and author several papers on Social Economy.
 
The Scientific Commission also includes, as members, Fernanda Rodrigues, professor of Social Work at the University of Porto and former coordinator of the National Action Plan for Inclusion, and Constantino Sakellarides, physician, full professor at the National School of Public Health and former Director-General of Health.