UN Convenes Development Partners Meeting to Strengthen Development Assistance to Saint Lucia
Castries: The UN Barbados and Eastern Caribbean
Multi-Country Office is intensifying efforts to support Saint Lucia to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and improve the quality of life of Saint Lucians.
A hybrid Development Partners Roundtable Discussion, organized by the UN Resident Coordinator’s Office and the Government of Saint Lucia, was recently convened in Castries, Saint Lucia, with participation from Prime Minister, the Hon. Philip Pierre, and over 50 high-level officials, including key development partners, permanent secretaries and other senior Government personnel.
Held under the theme: “Leveraging Partnerships to Collectively Respond to Challenges”, the forum sought to strengthen the tripartite relationship between the Government, Development Partners, and the United Nations, to improve the delivery of development assistance to Saint Lucia, reduce implementation bottlenecks, and stimulate SDG progress.
It provided donor Governments including the United Kingdom, United States of America, European Union and Canada, and development organisations including the World Bank, Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) , Organization of American States (OAS), the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), an opportunity to discuss first-hand Saint Lucia’s newly developed 2021-2026 Medium-Term Development Strategy, and promote a common understanding of the Government’s development priorities.
In delivering Opening Remarks, Prime Minister Pierre urged development partners, to be mindful of the uniqueness of Saint Lucia, noting that whilst the Caribbean may be regarded as one space, every island, even in the OECS, is different. “One size does not fit all,” he cautioned, while calling for the provision of more efficient support to crisis victims, particularly the most vulnerable, thereby minimizing the bottlenecks to access funding.
Acting UN Resident Coordinator, Dr. Renata Clarke, in addressing the forum noted that the discussion was timely given the myriad development challenges facing Caribbean SIDS, which have been exacerbated by the socio-economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and, more recently, the Triple Crisis of food, energy and finance. While commending the Government for meeting these challenges head on, she warned: “You simply cannot overcome them alone.”
The UN head emphasized that the situation demanded that stronger and more strategic partnerships be formed, through robust bi-lateral and multi-lateral dialogue, and concerted efforts to bring all parties to the table.
“We all recognize that Development Assistance is not a straightforward process with one-size-fits-all solutions. You can be assured of the UN’s continued commitment to the Government and people of Saint Lucia, to provide more integrated programming, to increase advocacy for SIDS, and to mobilize key resources to enhance resilience and protect the most vulnerable.”
The forum also provided an opportunity for the Saint Lucia Government to learn more about planned and ongoing development interventions in-country, including initiatives outlined in the UN Country Implementation Plan for Saint Lucia, which could be leveraged as a means to address national priorities with support from all development partners and International Financing Institutions.
Ultimately, the dialogue stimulated discussion aimed at ensuring better alignment of national priorities and development partners’ interventions, whilst ensuring that development assistance contributed to the acceleration of Saint Lucia’s achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Head of the UN Resident Coordinator’s Officer for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, Kenroy Roach, closed the meeting noting the commitment of the UN to address Saint Lucia’s priority needs and sustain the dialogue. He welcomed the agreement among partners to explore how to work together to provide more targeted support to the government on key priorities such as the Youth Economy, capacity building to strengthen data and statistics, and enhancing access to development financing, and a proposal to continue the dialogue under the framework of Saint Lucia’s National Sustainable Development Goals Coordinating Committee.
The face -to-face element of the development partners coordinating meeting was held at the Harbor Club Hotel, Rodney Bay Saint Lucia. Overall, participants included senior staff of the Government of Saint Lucia, including Permanent Secretaries and Development Partners.
