Greetings For NGO Capacity Building Seminar By Dr. Gladstone ...

Greetings
For
NGO Capacity Building Seminar
By
Dr. Gladstone Hutchinson
Director General, PIOJ
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Good morning …….
It is indeed my pleasure to bring greetings to you this morning on behalf of the Planning
Institute of Jamaica as you begin two days of deliberations at this dynamic NGO Capacity
Building Seminar, under the theme: “Building the Assets of the Poor”.
The PIOJ is especially pleased to host this and any initiative that seeks to empower
citizens and communities by protecting them from vulnerability and deprivation.
Importantly, your work seeks to assist them in identifying where their strengths lie, how
they can build on their assets in positive and sustainable ways to ultimately advance
their well-being, development and progress especially within the context of a tight fiscal
space and limited resources.
The issues you will discuss today, in support of the public good, therefore underscore
your significant contribution to national development and the invaluable role you
continue to play in a variety of ways in our nation’s political, economic, social,
governance and environmental activities: in policy formulation; as pressurizers and
agenda setters, service deliverers, monitors, innovators and partners.
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The theme of this Seminar fits well with the achievement of “Effective Social Protection”
one of the key Outcomes under Goal 1 of Vision 2030 Jamaica which is to empower
Jamaicans to achieve their fullest potential by 2030. This Outcome which “centres on
mitigating the vulnerabilities that can leave persons at risk”, is therefore integral to the
achievement of the Plan.
As a key stakeholder group, your organization obviously has a critical role to play in
achieving many of the national and sector strategies of Vision 2030 Jamaica and
especially those relating to the provision of effective social protection:
• to expand opportunities for the poor to engage in sustainable livelihoods
• to promote family responsibility and community participation for the protection
of the vulnerable.
Mr. Richard Lumsden, Programme Manager for Vision 2030 Jamaica, will I’m sure speak
to these in a more fulsome way later on in the programme.
Part of the strategic outlook of the Planning Institute is to seriously engage with
partners and stakeholders in creating realities out of plans. As you will agree with me,
creating these realities has been problematic and largely unsuccessful as
implementation has often been the weak link in the chain, and so we sometimes fail to
create the value and the outcomes of which we theorize. A major reason for our failure
has been to engage as directly as we can with the end-users, clients and beneficiaries.
This Seminar is also timely. As we face this moment in our history as planners and as a
country, set within the context of global and national dynamics, it is a good time to reassess
our approaches, and put in place strengthened initiatives that facilitate a true
integration of all our skills, ideas and practices. We at the Planning Institute have
therefore moved over the past several years into a phase of closer interaction and
dialogue with the non-state sector, including private sector, NGOs and community
organizations, so that our modeling, social planning and sustainable development
approaches can be enriched, and practicable.
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We are very pleased that you should partner with us today for this seminar. Through all
of you, the agencies that interface with the citizens on the ground, we can explore what
the data and information gaps may be, and how we may move to address these.
In seizing the moment, all of us as Jamaicans have a role to play. We have to combine
our creative energies to face the many economic and social challenges. As part of PIOJ’s
contribution at this time, we want, through seminars like these, to strengthen your
capacity to utilize available information, and best practice approaches, in serving the
people of Jamaica.
I therefore wish for you a successful two days of intense discussions and planning, and
pledge our full support in advancing the vital role you play in our nation’s progress
towards security and prosperity for all.
Thank you.
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