Four Caribbean islands schooled on disaster procurement

MAMMEE BAY, St Ann: REPRESENTATIVE FROM community-based organisations, drawn from four Caribbean countries, began a three-day procurement for communitybased organisations workshop at the Jewel Dunn’s River Hotel in Mammee Bay, St Ann.

Presented by the Community Disaster Risk Reduction Fund (CDRRF) of the Caribbean Development Bank in collaboration with the Social Development Commission, the workshop has attracted approximately 30 participants representing all the parish development committees in Jamaica, along with representatives from Belize, Barbados, and British Virgin Islands.

Governance coordinator at the SDC, Nickole Kellyman, told The Gleaner that the participants are those who have projects with the CDRRF, and the workshop is to guide them in terms of effectively completing the processes necessary to procure items.

“What we want to do is to ensure they have the knowledge when they are able to access the funds, that they are aware of the procurement processes,” Kellyman pointed out.

In the end, the groups are expected to be more efficient in the procurement process not just as it relates to funding from the CDRRF, but from other funding agencies.

Chairman of the opening session, former SDC parish manager for St Ann, Richardo Aiken, who is now the community development specialist with the CDRRF, based in Barbados, said the workshop represents a paradigm shift in procurement development.

The workshop is the second of three scheduled to be held across the Caribbean, with the first being staged in Barbados in July.

Meanwhile, project manager at CDRRF, Claudia James, said there are eight projects across the four member countries involved in the workshop, and the three-day training which ends today should benefit participants greatly.

According to James: “What we have been finding is that a lot of our community-based organisations which have benefited from the CDRRF grant have a challenge with this aspect of their project implementation. As a result, it delays the implementation process, and of course time is money. One way to address it is to have a workshop which brings out all of the project managers and possibly other persons involved with the procurement process.”