UNDP currently provides assistance to the Caribbean region mainly through two
funding processes – Country Cooperation Frameworks (CCFs), and of regional programmes CARICOM and
the OECS . UNDP has supported CSME since the mid-1990s. This support has
included preparation of the various protocols for amending the original Treaty
of Chagaramas, and is currently supporting the public education programme for
the CSME. In collaboration with the Swiss Government, UNDP is also supporting
the preparation of a CARICOM Trade and Investment Report 2005.
UNDP’s response is being pursued through four strategic thrusts:
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Strengthened relationships with governments by
providing timely, informed, high-level and effective upstream policy
advice to governments in specific priority areas, and playing a
facilitating role in national processes, including consensus-building and
consultative processes on issues of national priority.
-
Building strategic partnerships with
national and international development partners, including UN system and
private sector organizations, thus creating new development opportunities
and combining resources.
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Supporting the publication of National and
Regional Human Development Reports and Millennium Development Goal Reports
as a tool to enhance policy dialogue with governments and other development
partners.
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Developing and implementing a partnership
strategy to take advantage of synergies and increase the impact of
development interventions.
UNDP established offices in Trinidad and Tobago in 1961 (first as the UN
Technical Assistance Board), and the office as presently configured serves
Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname, Aruba and Netherlands Antilles. Over the years
UNDP has partnered Government and the non-Governmental sector supporting
development efforts of the country, both as the sole financier in the early
years and in a cost sharing partnership in later years.
The nature and type of assistance accessed from the UNDP has changed overtime
as the country progressed through the various stages of nationhood. In the first
United Nations Development Decade (1961-1970) for example which coincided with
the country’s attainment of independence, UNDP provided critical support in
building human resource skills to fill the void left by the colonizing power.
Undoubtedly, the most significant initiative in that period was the technical
assistance provided for the East Coast Seismic Survey that led to the
discoveries of offshore gas and oil that provided the economic resources that
fuelled the economy’s growth. Today this energy sector is the driver of the
economy
In the following two decades while maintaining its focus on building human
resource skills, UNDP placed emphasis on building critical institutions as the
country sought to transform itself to a more industrialized society. Some of
the flagship projects during this period led to establishment of such
institutions as the
- Caribbean Industrial Research Institute,
- Institute of Marine Affairs,
- E.M.A.
- Caribbean Fisheries Training and Development Institute,
- Telecommunications Department at the John Donaldson Technical Institute,
- Hydrographic Unit and
- Metal Industries Company - a tripartite initiative with UNDP, the
private sector and the Government that created the skills required for the
manufacturing sector in the economic diversification effort.
UNDP’s impact on the development of Trinidad and Tobago is reflected not only
in its contribution to the building of human and institutional capacity, but
also in the invaluable support provided through technical advice particularly in
negotiating its position vis a vis major international conventions. These
include UNCLOS. Meeting
obligations under CEDAW;implementation of Agenda 21 which encompassed the
UN Convention on Biological Diversity, UN Framework Convention on Climate Change,
UN Convention to Combat Desertification, the Montreal Protocol and more recently
the Kyoto Protocol and the Stockholm Convention for Persistent Organic
Pollutants.
In the thematic area of the environment UNDP has successfully mobilized
significant resources from the global funds earmarked under the Global
Environment Fund. Some of these resources have been utilized to finance community based projects under the
GEF Small Grants Programme.
This programme has recently been expanded to include community based projects
that strengthen the institution of the family.
Over the last decade, an impressive consensus around a common set of
development goals has been captured in the commitments made by Governments in
the United Nations global conferences. The consensus on goals has led to a new
focus on results, and results, in turn, are increasingly what attract resources,
investment and development.
World leaders convened at the Millennium Summit in September 2000 and agreed
on a Millennium Declaration and Millennium Development Goals, most of which are
to be achieved by 2015. The MDGs comprise a framework for achieving human
development that enjoys the political commitment of the international community.
In its decision 2003/8, the Executive Board emphasized the role of UNDP in
advancing the MDGs.
Vision 2020 and the
MDGs are aligned. UNDP’s global network is set up to provide the required high
quality, substantive support to programme countries. It does so by encouraging
an internal culture of knowledge sharing and substantive skills development,
capitalizing on the vast experience inherent in its network. UNDP increasingly
orients itself towards policy advisory services and capacity development, by
strengthening its substantive knowledge base in its key areas.
Globally, the new wave of globalization and the associated rule-based trading
arrangements demand that small countries improve their competitiveness. In the
region, Trinidad and Tobago has emerged as the leading trading nation among the
English speaking CARICOM countries both in terms of goods and services and as a
dynamic political force. The country’s macro-economic indicators have remained
stable over the last ten years but available social indicators point to the need
for further improvements.
Major strides have been made between 1976 and 2004 in of the traditional
social sectors of health, education and housing but issues of quality,
accessibility and timeliness of delivery persist. The situation as described
speaks to a need for sustained efforts at Public Sector management and for the
development of strong evidence-based planning systems to move the country in the
desired direction.
Changing role of UNDP. The role of UNDP is changing from that of
primarily funding agency to that of development agency. Trends show an
increasing growth, demand for and importance of the UNDP role as implementation
partner of government cost-shared and donor funded non-core programmes and
projects, with increasing emphasis on assisting programme countries to achieve
their MDGs
Achieving the MDGs and Vision 2020
-
UNDP is uniquely positioned as the MDG score keeper, to support
TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO’s vision 2020 and an MDG-based Poverty Reduction
Strategy, on the basis of transparent and inclusive processes. Inequality
hampers growth and limits the efficiency of growth to reduce poverty. UNDP can
also play a catalytic role in improving efficiency of existing social sector
expenditure. An MDG-based poverty reduction strategy should anchor the scaling up of
public investments, capacity building and domestic resource mobilization. UNDP
will continue to support a framework for strengthening governance through its
advocacy and promotion of human rights, engagement of civil society, and through
partnerships with the private sector. More concretely, UNDP can be a key player
in:
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Supporting the measurement and impact of social policy towards achieving
the MDGs and Vision 2020;
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Assessing the investments and policies needed to reach the Goal number
one- Poverty reduction by 50%, by the year 2015;
-
Providing targeted support in
the areas of development services and capacity development in key areas as the
country embarks on the extensive manpower planning exercise;
-
Focusing on improving social sector service delivery to the poor combining
“top down” and “bottom up” approaches with particular attention being paid to
health care and education;
-
Promoting mechanisms for transparent and decentralized governance;
-
Pursuing an aggressive Public-Private Sector Partnership strategy that
seeks to draw the private sector more directly into forming partnerships for
social development.
UNDP has the proven experience and capacity to engage the Private Sector as
an active partner in the development process as demonstrated in its work in
Nigeria with British Petroleum, the Angola’s Enterprise Fund with Chevron-Texaco
or installing multifunctional energy platforms in Burkina Faso and Mali. In the
case of “Enterprise Africa”, UNDP played an instrumental role in bringing
together 20 donors, multilaterals, private foundations and business
associations. The UN’s convening power combined with its global knowledge network
play a key role in this regard.
UNDP is also a constant source of innovation. Many concepts, ideas and
products used today by multi-lateral and financial institutions have been
pioneered by UNDP. From the
“Jobs Project” in Bulgaria, the
Business Advisory
Centers in Egypt, to the development of a methodology for Mexico’s
“Supply Chain
Project”, UNDP continues be a source of innovation and knowledge.
Environmental degradation and HIV-AIDS are still major issues in Trinidad and
Tobago as in the other Caribbean States. The most recent hurricane season and
floods are proof that improved policies and systems for disaster prevention,
planning and mitigation are required. In February 2005 a multi-sectoral
technical group of experts that included UNDP was appointed to advise the Prime
Minister on overhauling the Disaster Management Agency in Trinidad and Tobago
and to develop a Disaster Preparedness Plan for the country to deal with large
scale disasters.
HIV-AIDS infection rates pose a serious
risk to Trinidad and Tobago by not only threatening its current developmental
gains particularly through the depletion of skilled manpower in the productive
sectors. UNDP has worked with companies to provide information about
HIV/AIDS through workshops and lectures where the impact of the epidemic on
business arrangements for People Living With HIV/AIDS, human rights and ethical
issues relating to HIV/AIDS in the work place are discussed.
Improving Public sector Management
Government’s current Public Sector management efforts are distinguished by
the thrust in e-government/governance. Improved public sector management is
perhaps the important lynchpin to ensure that the development goals are
realized particularly since increasing global competitiveness mandates that the country
is at the cutting edge of knowledge. The trust towards e-governance also
facilitates the access of the population to public goods and services and makes
the delivery process more efficient.
As a neutral and trusted partner for many developing countries, UNDP is in a
unique position to provide continued policy advice and support to government and
other national stakeholders in the area of Information and Communication
Technology (ICT). Moreover, UNDP has the capacity to facilitate and foster the
cross-linkages that exist between ICT and the MDGs-Vision 2020.
In this context, UNDP has developed, in partnership with the Markle
Foundation (and supported by Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard, Cisco Systems,
AOL-Time Warner, the Harvard Center for International Development, Grameen Bank
and other business, non-profit and international entities), an ICT policy
framework targeted at developing countries that attemptsto harness ICT as
an enabler for development. In effect, the Digital Opportunity Initiative (DOI)
report includes, without being prescriptive, a typology for developing countries
of national ICTD strategies complemented by a holistic policy framework to
address ICT as an enabler for development. The latter is centered on the
identification of five critical policy areas that need to be addressed together
for strategy design and implementation, accompanied by the open involvement of
all stakeholders in the process and strategic public-private partnerships for
implementation. As a result of this work, UNDP leads the ICTD national
strategies working group of the UN ICT Task Force.
Trinidad and Tobago can through UNDP make the best use of new and emerging
global partnerships such as the G-8 DOT Force, the UN ICT Task Force and the
more recent World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) related processes.
UNDP will assist Trinidad and Tobago in the implementation of the national
ICT for Development strategy: “FastForward”.
The work will build on both the policy framework of the Digital Opportunity
Initiative and recent country experiences where UNDP has been involved:
Azerbaijan, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Djibouti, Lithuania, Mozambique, South
Africa, Turkmenistan, Venezuela, and many others.
More concretely, UNDP can:
- Ensure that ICT strategy priorities in the short, medium and long term run along with costs and potential partners - an implementation strategy or
“action plan”
- Link upstream policy and implementation and downstream programmes to
avoid a top-down focus and be able to reach the urban poor and rural areas
where central/local governments are weaker.
- Frame national ICT strategies in the MDG context and improve links
with national development agendas and needs.
- Strengthen policy connections between ICT as an enabler and ICT as
a sector.
- Leverage the knowledge of other successful country strategy experiences
to foster increased South-South cooperation
- Identify potential international partners for strategy implementation
in terms of expertise and resources -including developing country private
sector
- Link ICT strategies to the overall WSIS process and provide policy
inputs and good practices for the implementation of national Information
Society strategies.
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