The survey will provide updated data for ensure that the development of the new tourist destination improves the quality of life of the local population.

Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. (October, 2024). The Single Beneficiary System (SIUBEN) will carry out a data collection in the municipality of Villa Montellano, where the Punta Bergantín project is being developed, with the aim of understanding the living conditions of the people who live there, which will allow the organization of the adaptive social protection response required to protect households and implement public policies that guarantee that the benefits derived from the project reach the population and improve their quality of life.

This was announced during the formal signing ceremony of the inter-institutional agreement signed between the Single Beneficiary System and the Punta Bergantín Consortium, as part of the actions to address the issue.

“The information collected in this survey will be used to identify potential beneficiaries of social programs and will also be an important input for the design and implementation of targeted public policies that generate a favorable impact on the homes of Villa Montellano, contributing to improving the quality of life of the people of this municipality,” said Augusto de los Santos, general director of SIUBEN.

Andrés Marranzini, executive director of Consorcio Punta Bergantín, said that “with the information provided by SIUBEN, we will be able to understand the needs of the different communities in order to integrate them into development, especially in the preparation of human capital to ensure the integration of the local workforce into the new opportunities that this project brings.”

The data collected will be incorporated into the Universal Social Household Registry of SIUBEN, facilitating access to social benefits and establishing a baseline for future measurement of the project's impact on the quality of life of households.

Progress and details of the survey

As part of the preparations for the start of the survey, a cartographic survey was carried out in the municipality of Villa Montellano in August 2024, allowing the counting of the structures identified in each block, taking the geolocation points and recording their most important characteristics, so that in addition to their total, the use given to said structures is known, accommodation of people (homes); churches, commercial banks, grocery stores, betting banks, hospitals, police stations, among other uses.

The census, which will begin in November 2024, will be carried out for thirty (30) days, where 45 interviewers residing in Villa Montellano will be hired and trained, under the supervision of SIUBEN technical staff. It will be carried out in the "sweep" mode (house-to-house interview), applying the Household Socioeconomic Information Questionnaire and some specialized modules on issues of climate vulnerability, care policy, food security, training needs, tourism management and operation skills, food security and care.