Civil Society project underway

THE Caribbean Policy Development Centre (CPDC) working with the European Commission has engaged in a three-year joint partnership.

The Civil Society Regional Development Project will seek to build capacity of the Non-Governmental (NGO) Sector in the Caribbean, through the implementation of specific actions. These will focus on strengthening the enabling environment within which NGO’s presently function – including activities that promote NGO’s institutional and organisational capabilities through a number of core thematic areas, such as addressing the legislative environment, promoting greater transparency within the sector; and project management skills development.

Recognising that the inclusion of NGO’s is crucial, CPDC established a National Co-ordinating Committee across the region to carry out a multi-sectoral working group that will advise on the actions that are to be implemented.

Yesterday, the multi-sectoral national working group for Barbados, which includes Pinelands Creative Workshop as Chair; Barbados Association of Non-Governmental Organisations; Barbados Renewable Energy Association; Congress of Trade Unions & Staff Associations of Barbados; Barbados Youth Business Trust and Barbados Youth Development Council; gathered for the first of four National NGO Consultations – “NGO Code of Conduct &Ethics Meeting” – at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus.

Chief Executive Officer of PCW, Rodney Grant, said that the Caribbean Regional Development Project has been funded by the European Commission under the Caribbean Regional Indicative Programme (CRIP), to the tune of two million Euros, out of which 1.7 million is direct support to the project for the 15 CARIFORUM countries.

He revealed to participants that under the capacity building pillar of the project, they have negotiated a consultancy with the Cave Hill Campus through the Open Campus to deliver an online platform for Civil Society – a certificate programme.

“What we have done through CPDC is make this certificate programme regional – a six-month certificate programme across the 15 CARIFORUM countries. It should be coming on stream in early 2017 and fully funded by us...”

Grant also disclosed that yesterday’s consultation falls under the governance thematic area.

“It is particularly important, because the governance area is one that speaks to issues of accountability and transparency. And often times we as civil society, we like to bash governments and bash everybody about being transparent and being accountable, but we need to look at our own governance issues… Part of the process is to look at an NGO survey that we have developed, which looks at your internal governance modalities and your external governance modalities.”