by Curlan Campbell, NOW Grenada
- Final draft of National Sustainable Development Plan 2020–2035 was presented to parliament in November 2019
- The Medium-term Action Plan 2020–2022 (MTAP) is a companion document to National Sustainable Development Plan (NSDP) 2020-2035.
- Stakeholders tasked to discuss priority areas selected for implementation over first 3 years for social sector
A group of stakeholders met on Monday to review the Draft Medium-Term Agenda (MTAP). This is part of ongoing sectoral consultations to refine strategic actions and revise cost estimates, targets and indicators of priority areas that can be implemented over the next 3 years as government seeks to roll out the National Sustainable Development Plan (NSDP) 2020–2035 in five 3-year cycles.
“The purpose of these consultations was to verify what was the aim of activities or interventions that need to take place over the next 3 years and to ensure that as the social sector we are comfortable with what is contained in the document for implementation,” said Elaine Henry-McQueen, a member of the Technical Working Group.
The MTAP 2020–2022 is a companion document to Grenada’s NSDP 2020–2035. Stakeholders were tasked to discuss the priority areas that were selected for implementation for the first 3 years for the social sector. The first national goal for the social sector listed under the Draft MTAP is High Human and Social development: Putting people at the centre of sustainable development and transformation.
There are 3 national outcomes listed under this goal:
- A healthy population
- Educated, productive, highly skilled, trained, and conscious citizen
- A resilient, inclusive, gender-sensitive, and peaceful society.
The second national goal is a vibrant, dynamic, competitive economy with supporting climate and disaster-resilient infrastructure. The national outcomes listed under this goal include:
- Broad-base, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, and transformation
- Competitive business environment
- Modern climate and disaster-resilient infrastructure.
The third national goal is Environment Sustainability and Security. The national outcomes listed under this goal include:
- Climate resilience and hazard risk reduction
- Energy security and efficiency.
In November 2019, the final draft of the NSDP 2020–2035 was presented to parliament. The opportunity for input into the document still exists as stakeholder consultations are ongoing. Consultations such as these have unearthed several weaknesses within the social sector including:
- Narrow production base and low value-added production and exports
- Highly susceptible to international economic shocks
- Large pool of low-skilled workers and limited pool of highly-skilled technical workers.
- Highly vulnerable to climate change and natural hazards
- Human resource planning and management, work ethics, attitudes, low productivity
- Challenges in health and education
- Gender disparities
- Governance and institutional weaknesses.
There were many strengths identified:
- Rule of law and democracy
- Young population (80% of the population between 0–54 years)
- The creativity of our people, rich culture and heritage
- Political, social and macroeconomic stability
- Regional and international partnerships
- Natural environment and clean air.
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