The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) has announced that it will provide USD16 million (mn) in funding to Dominica Electricity Services Limited (DOMLEC), to assist with the restoration of electricity generation services. On March 22, 2018, the Bank’s Board of Directors approved the provision of a loan of USD15.8 mn and a grant of USD200,000 to restore DOMLEC’s transmission and distribution system, and improve the company’s resilience to climate change.
Dominica’s electricity sector was severely affected by the passage of Hurricane Maria in September 2017, with approximately 75 percent of the network being destroyed or damaged. As at January 2018, less than 20 percent of electricity services had been restored.
“In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Maria, Dominica was completely without electricity services. We know that the provision of electricity is critical to the social and economic wellbeing of citizens and residents of the island. DOMLEC has been working diligently to restore service to the island and this project aims to support those efforts, and accelerate the pace of reconstruction,” said Daniel Best, Director of Projects, CDB.
The project has several components, including:
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Despite the high vulnerability of the Caribbean Region to natural disasters and the effect they can have on mental health and psychosocial well-being, social resilience is often overlooked in mitigation and rebuilding efforts. In direct response to this issue, the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) has announced that it will fund a programme to enhance capacity for mental health and psychosocial support in disaster management in the Caribbean.
“It is critical that a country’s response to any disaster includes a targeted psychosocial support and mental health component to rebuild individual and social resilience,” said Daniel Best, Director of Projects, CDB.
“We have witnessed first-hand how feelings of anxiety and distress can result from the inability to tolerate and withstand environmental and social threats, and lead to behaviours, including substance abuse, child and spousal abuse and gender-based violence. This can potentially have a long term debilitating impact on victims, and by extension, the development of Small Island Developing States,” he added.
Addressing mental health and psychosocial support has become increasingly relevant for governments and humanitarian actors. The grant from CDB will assist the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) with enhancing regional capacity to provide this kind of support in disaster management, and achieve three primary objectives:
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The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) will provide a grant of GBP974, 000 to the Government of Jamaica, to prepare a feasibility and design study for the development of an agriculture project for communities in the parishes of St. Catherine and Clarendon.
The St. Catherine and Clarendon Agricultural Development project is being funded through a grant from the United Kingdom Caribbean Infrastructure Partnership Fund (UKCIF), which is administered by CDB.
“The agriculture sector plays a significant role in Jamaica’s socioeconomic development, and provides employment opportunities for rural residents. In St. Catherine and Clarendon, there are large areas of land which are being underutilised, and which could provide opportunities for expanding the sector. The plans and designs developed under this feasibility study will lay the groundwork for a project to enhance the productivity of farmers in these parishes,” said Andrew Dupigny, Head of Infrastructure Partnerships, CDB.
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The Finance Ministry’s ‘clinics’ with Regional Executive Officers and Permanent Secretaries about what needs to be done to accelerate the implementation of projects is showing signs of bearing fruit.
Minister of State Joseph Harmon on Monday said government is making progress in increasing the pace at which multi-million dollar infrastructural projects of the Public Sector Investment Programme (PSIP) are being implemented. “Based on the overall assessment, there has been significant improvement in the performance of ministries, departments and regional organisations with respect to the spending and with respect to performance under the PSIP,” Harmon said.
He told the opening of a ‘Public Policy Analysis Management and Project Cycle Management training programme being conducted by the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), that that was the conclusion emerging from a meeting between Cabinet and Permanent Secretaries and Technical Officers held last month. That meeting reviewed spending in 2017 and discussions on 2018 work-plans.
In May 2017, Finance Minister Winston Jordan had said that the rate of PSIP implementation had declined to 20 percent at a time when the economy had been in need of a stimulus.
Harmon noted that when the APNU+AFC coalition came to power in May 2015, there had been issues of transparency, poor quality of work and slothful implementation which government had to address.
Director of the Finance Ministry’s Project Cycle Management Division, Tarachand Balgobin said last month he and his colleagues briefed Cabinet about the progress of the 2017 Public Sector Investment Programme (PSIP) and their 2018 strategy for enhanced timely implementation.
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On February 2nd, bmobile signed a historical memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the National Information and Communication Technology Company Limited (iGovTT), the state enterprise responsible for the provision of ICT consulting and support services to Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies in Trinidad and Tobago. The landmark MoU will allow all 22 ministries, 119 state companies and 135 statutory bodies to use bmobile’s e-Tender platform to provide automated online procurement and project management solutions for all their contracts, setting a new benchmark for public sector procurement and unprecedented levels of accountability, transparency and inclusivity, where every local business can participate and benefit from the Public sector bidding process.
During an interview with Moonilal Lalchan, Chairman of the Office of Procurement Regulation, Afra Raymond, Immediate Past President of the Joint Consultative Committee and Keino Cox, bmobile’s Senior Manager Supply Chain on Power 102.1 FM on February 5th, Cox gave an overview of bmobile’s e-Tender system, the first digital procurement platform developed locally. “As part of the company’s digital transformation strategy, bmobile moved to an online procurement system in 2012 to provide an open, fair and transparent system that leveled the playing field by being inclusive to all sizes and ranges of companies.” Cox explained that e-Tender was a simplified process that cut costs for both bmobile and companies submitting bids. “It also provides real-time competitive tender postings, updates and queries.” The online platform, which was developed internally by bmobile staff, has allowed the company to expand its reach of vendors globally, with over 3,000 registered vendors from various countries.
bmobile’s e-Tender acts as a nexus between businesses and opportunities. The telecom operator has seen a 40% increase in the number of companies participating in its tenders. The increased visibility by being online, allowed a wider range in the size and type of businesses applying for Tenders. “Companies which previously would not have known about available tenders, were now aware through the automated email notifications of the e-Tender platform. The increase in the number of companies also led to higher quality, lower prices and more competitive bids, which in turn led to a significant cost reduction, including about 20% savings on just our routine purchases without having to negotiate for lower prices; an increase in productivity and efficiency along the whole value chain of the procurement process; and higher quality of products and services purchased by bmobile.” said Cox.
Cox indicated that bmobile had also developed an online tender evaluation platform so persons can participate in the online evaluation process from anywhere in the world and added, “We are proud to have developed a digital procurement platform that rivals the best in the world and pays for itself locally thus saving on FOREX. Countries as far as the UK, USA and Asia have reached out to us to explore our software. As the only full-service national communications service provider, bmobile is committed to supporting the growth of local business and the development of the national community by sharing the benefits we received via the roll out of e-Tender to the public sector.”
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