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CDB funds chronicle of JSIF social development initiatives in Jamaica

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The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), through its Basic Needs Trust Fund (BNTF) Programme, has funded the creation of an archive chronicling the social development programmes of the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF). JSIF is the Bank's implementation agency for BNTF sub-projects and the initiative was supported under the institutional strengthening sub-component of the fifth cycle of the BNTF Programme, to the tune of USD24,866. Funding for the collection covered the digitisation of data and the cost of the hardware requirements. The archive was opened on September 18, 2014, by JSIF in partnership with the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) in the Wesley Hughes Documentation Centre at PIOJ offices on Oxford Road in Kingston. Scarlette Gillings, Head of JSIF noted, "Through the Bank's sponsorship JSIF related research papers, manuals, conferences proceedings, photographs, CDs and DVDs and other information resources will be made available to members of the public and local and foreign researchers. The realisation of this vision will allow other organisations to learn from the Fund's occasional mistakes and be guided by its achievements when the outcomes of our endeavours far exceeded the dream of what could happen." In responding to the chronicling of the JSIF programme at PIOJ, Mrs. Darran Newman Belgrave, BNTF Portfolio Manager at CDB, stated: "The BNTF Jamaica Country Project, implemented by JSIF, is one of the largest portfolios in the BNTF programme. It makes good sense to invest in the documentation management of JSIF's work. The data on community projects and results serve the purpose of a practical base reference for development planners and practitioners at national and regional levels, and for the wider public." The BNTF Programme is one of the Bank's key instruments for addressing poverty reduction. BNTF is designed to assist poor and vulnerable communities in improving access to basic public services. The Programme provides grant funding for social and economic infrastructure, and skills training to enhance employability and community management. The ten participating Borrowing Member Countries are Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Turks and Caicos Islands. JSIF is an agency of the Government of Jamaica, which mobilises resources and channels them to community- based socio- economic infrastructure and social services projects in underserved communities. Article adapted from: JSIF press release CAPTION: Erica Shakes Librarian at the Wesley Hughes Documentation Centre at PIOJ shows some CDs from the JSIF collection.

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