Jamaica

Government of Jamaica, the Canadian International Development Agency Environmental Action Programme (ENACT) and the National Environment & Planning Agency (NEPA). Partners: Portland Parish Council, Portland Parish Development Committee, The Ministry of Local Government, Youth and Community Development and the Social Development Commission.

The LSDP programme grew out of an eight month multi-stakeholder
participatory planning process originally supported by the CIDA/GOJ Environmental Action Programme (ENACT) and a national partnership made up of nearly 20 public sector and civil society organizations. In 1999 partners developed the Local Sustainable Development Planning
Framework (LSDPF) to advance a national governance and sustainable development framework, which would guide Jamaica’s commitments to Agenda 21 at the local level. The LSDP programme grew out of the LSDPF and supports the demonstration of local sustainable development planning applications in one Jamaican parish in order to assist local authorities in their efforts to elaborate, enhance and implement local Agenda 21. In January 2000, the Parish of Portland was selected by consensus as the site for the demonstration
project and a parish-based partnership was established. This local initiative called the Portland Local Sustainable Development Planning Project is led by the Portland Parish Council and the Portland Parish Development Committee (PDC). The PDC has representation from the political and administrative leadership in the parish, community groups, state agencies and the private sector.

The LSDP programme also includes the work of national partner institutions to drive strategic national interventions. These interventions are aimed at mainstreaming local sustainable development within the country’s primary development processes and at building capacity to support and enable local initiatives across Jamaica.

The LSDP programme addresses Chapter 10 of the Barbados Programme of Action on national institutions and administrative capacity. It prescribes national action in order to increase the awareness and involvement of non-governmental organizations, local communities and other major groups in public education, national planning and the implementation of sustainable development programmes

The following results have been achieved:
• An agreement between the Portland Parish Council and Civil Society formally to establish, support and participate in a partnership body called the Parish Development Committee (PDC) which will plan, guide and monitor sustainable development in the parish;
• The development of a consensus vision to guide sustainable development in the parish;
• The completion of a sustainable development profile for the parish of Portland, which documents current environment, socio-economic and governance conditions as well as forms the information base for prioritizing actions;
• The commencement of steps to develop a sustainable development
action plan for the parish that will identify goals,
priorities, activities, indicators, roles and responsibilities and funding sources;
• Local Sustainable Development Planning training modules have been produced in response to Portland capacity development needs. These will be made available to other regions.
At the national level the following achievements have resulted:
• The establishment of linkages and partner agreements between the primary development processes within Jamaica and the ENACT local sustainable development planning programme;
• The creation of a national enabling environment which will produce a comprehensive national sustainable development framework for Jamaica;
• A “corporate commitment and partner agreement” to designate the Social Development Commission as the national driver for local sustainable development as is reflected in the commission’s revised corporate mandate. This will facilitate the empowerment of citizens in communities, enabling their participation in an integrated, equitable and sustainable national development process;
• The implementation of activities to support and enable other local authorities to start local sustainable development planning.

Achieving local sustainable development will inevitably require:
• Consensus building on a shared national vision, core values and strategies to guide governance and development planning in the country;
• National and local partnerships as one of the core values throughout the processes;
• Comprehensive reform of traditional modes of development planning decision-making and activities can only be achieved through the formulation and elaboration of a national sustainable development framework;
• The integration of environmental, social and economic planning processes;
• An enabling jurisdictional and legal framework in which there is clear delegation of government responsibilities, policy management and decision-making authority and sufficient resources allocated;
• The review and coordination of national information management
systems to provide information required for sound cross-sectional decision-making;
• Collaboration and coordination within the primary development processes of a country and an agreement by both local and international donors to align themselves with such primary processes.

Ms. Charlene Easton
Local Communities Advisor
ENACT Programme
10 Caledonia Avenue
Kingston 5
Jamaica, West Indies
Tel.: (876) 754-7556
E-mail: ceaston@mail.infochan.com

Portland
Mayor P. Thomas
Portland Parish Council
1 Gideon Ave, Port Antonio
Portland
Jamaica, West Indies
Tel.: (876) 993-2866
E-mail: portlandpc@mlgycd.gov.ja

National
Mr. Franklin McDonald
Chief Executive Officer
National Environment and Planning Agency
10 Caledonia Avenue
Kingston 5
Jamaica, West Indies
Tel.: (876) 754-7526
E-mail: fmcdonald@igc.org

Mr. Robert Bryan
Executive Director
Social Development Commission
12th Floor, The Towers
25 Dominica Drive
Kingston 5
Jamaica, West Indies
Tel.: (876) 754 7609/ 754-7610-9
E-mail: sdced@cwjamaica.com