United Nations Development Programme Jamaica

Kingston, Jamaica‐6‐May‐10‐ Ambassador His Excellency Marco Mazzocchi‐Alemanni, representatives of the European Commission (EC) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) met with deported migrant women and toured the facility where they are currently in training.

In a closed session, almost 20 trainees sensitized the Ambassador and other stakeholders about the various challenges they face in meeting their personal development goals. He encouraged them to remain committed in their endeavours, "I know it has to be difficult for you, you have made mistakes and are trying to turn a new page and I applaud that. I wish for you all the best as your success is crucial, as it will send the message to other single mothers
who face harsh economic challenges that there are other options and opportunities for them."

Plans to develop national strategies for stockpile management and periodic weapons destruction in the region, are to get underway soon, following a two-day Firearms Destruction and Stockpile Management Workshop, held at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel, in Kingston, from April 28 to 29.

A United Nations commissioned study as part of a U.N.migration and development project shows that school attendance in three inner-city communities increased after the migration of a parent.

World Biodiversity Day, May 22, 2010 will be a highpoint in this year's observance of the International Year for Biodiversity.

Human beings are an integral part of nature; our fate is tightly linked with biodiversity, the huge variety of other animals and plants, the places they live and their surrounding environments, all over the world.

We rely on this diversity of life to provide the food, fuel, medicine and other essentials we simply cannot live without. Yet this rich diversity is being lost at a greatly accelerated rate because of human activities. This impoverishes us all. People all over the world are working to safeguard this irreplaceable natural wealth and reduce biodiversity loss and this is vital for current and future human wellbeing.

But, we need to do more. Now is the time to act. Felling or burning of forests, removal of mangroves, intensive farming, pollution stress, overfishing and the impacts of climate change are all destroying biodiversity.

We can stop this loss, the question is will we? The International Year of Biodiversity is our chance to prove we will.

The Government's capacity to analyse and manage development data is to be further improved with the provision of $ 7 million for the Support to National Development Planning Goals, Millennium Development Goals and the Human Development project in the 2010/2011 Estimates of Expenditure.

Being implemented by the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ), through funding from the United Nations Development Programme and the Government of Jamaica, the project also aims to enable the administration to have good quality data for decision making.

UNIFEM is seeking consultancy support for the development of a country strategy for Jamaica along the following broad principles:

• The starting point for the country strategy should be Jamaica's own vision and priorities for gender equality.

• The country strategy should be developed in consultation with government MDAs, women's organizations, UN agencies, and other stakeholders.

Experience has now shown clearly that countries like Jamaica must mainstream disaster risk reduction if they are to achieve key development goals. While many know the human misery and crippling economic losses resulting from disasters, what few realize is that this devastation can be prevented through disaster risk reduction initiatives.

At left: Mainstreaming Disaster Risk Reduction Workshop 2009.

As such, UNDP, national and regional partners are collaborating to implement a major shift in policy during 2010. Although support for pre- and post-disaster activities continues as part of its mandate, UNDP embarked in 2009 on developing a comprehensive programme of support for Mainstreaming Disaster Risk Reduction. Working in partnership with the Office for Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM), Jamaica's national disaster management office, UNDP is developing a comprehensive approach to Disaster Risk Reduction that will tackle issues at both National and Local levels and support achievement of ODPEM's comprehensive matrix of priorities and its Strategic National Plan.

With the contribution of US $1.25 million by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), over 400 youth in rural and urban Jamaica are set to benefit from a two- year poverty reduction project by the UNDP in partnership with the Scientific Research Council (SRC), the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ), the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (MOA) among other agencies.

In association with the Forestry Department as the implementing partner, The United Nations Development Programme’s project on developing sustainable land management has now started. A project manager has been hired and an inception workshop is to be held early in 2010. For more details see the project page that can be found here

The Jamaica Deported Migrants and their Families project will soon be providing assistance to twenty children. The Jamaica Deported Migrants and their Families project will soon be providing assistance to twenty children. "Round about the next two weeks or so, the initial activities launched to identify 20 children who will be benefiting from financial grants, as well as referrals to agencies, in the case of those who need that, will get under way," project consultant St Rachel Ustanny told the Sunday Observer. "The parents would either be in prisons in the UK (United Kingdom) or elsewhere, or they would already have been deported to Jamaica," Ustanny said.

In addition to protecting the human rights of children of deported migrants and migrants who are still incarcerated in other countries, the project has as its objectives to: raise awareness about the development value of ensuring that deported migrants are apart of nation-building; educate deported migrants about their rights; conduct research to identify the needs of deported migrants as they attempt to reintegrate and resettle in Jamaica; and inform and educate students about the issues related to trafficking, illegal migration and deportation.