$31.8 Million Allocated to JASPEV

More than $31.8 million has been granted to the Jamaica Social Policy Evaluation Project (JASPEV), in the 2006/2007 Estimates of Expenditure, which is now before the House of Representatives.
The project falls within the ambit of the Office of the Cabinet and is funded by the Department for International Development and the Government of Jamaica. The project aims to establish processes and mechanisms to enable social policy priorities identified in the social policy framework and the social action plan, to be disseminated and carried forward effectively on a continuous basis. JASPEV began in 2002 and was slated to end in July 2005. It has been however since been extended to December 2006. Project achievements up to January this year, include; the establishment of a JASPEV Office, a technical working group and a multi-functional team. There has also been the design of the Social Policy Information System and the Youth Inclusion Prototype. In addition, the Technical Working Group produced the first Annual Progress Report on national social policy goals, which was published in October 2004. There was also the completion of a study by consultants commissioned by JASPEV to review the National Poverty Eradication Programme and present the findings of this study to the Human Resources Council (HRC) in December 2003. Project objectives for this financial year include public education geared at specific target audiences, as well as to the general public with the view to stimulate local community, and other interest groups to actively participate in activities relating to the JASPEV process.
In addition, there are also plans to put in place, Monitoring Systems for the Social Policy Framework goals, through the development of a Social Policy Information System (SPIS) in order to facilitate the generation and flow of information required for better social policy formulation, implementation and evaluation. Other targets include the publication of the government’s response to the first progress report; the completion and publication of the second progress report with the involvement of civil society, and the establishment of an Institutional Network.