Work to further build out phase two of the Pilot Programme for Climate Resilience (PPCR II) will continue this year with a $379-million budgetary allocation. This is contained in the 2019/20 Estimates of Expenditure, now before the House of Representatives. The project, which commenced in April 2013 and initially ran for 30 months, aims to improve the quality and use...

The Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) will continue work to formulate the country’s National Policy and Plan of Action on International Migration and Development. Approximately $34.7 million is earmarked for this undertaking in the 2019/20 Estimates of Expenditure, now before the House of Representatives. The project aims to build the capacity of ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) to facilitate migration...

The Public Sector Transformation Programme will be further boosted during the upcoming fiscal year, through a $1.32 billion allotment in the 2019/20 Estimates of Expenditure, now before the House of Representatives. The programme, jointly funded by the Government of Jamaica, World Bank, and United Kingdom Department for International Development, aims to strengthen public resource management and support State institutions in...

The Government will, this year, commence work in earnest to strengthen the Financial Services Commission’s (FSC’s) operational and technological capacity to undertake risk-based supervision across industries it supervises. A sum of $13.4 million is earmarked for this undertaking in the 2019/20 Estimates of Expenditure, which were tabled in the House of Representatives on February 14. The sectors that will be...

A sum of $638 million has been set aside in the 2019/20 Estimates of Expenditure for the HIV Prevalence in Most-at-Risk Population Reduced Project. The funds will go towards increasing safer sex practices; strengthening care, counselling and treatment services; and addressing stigma and discrimination among vulnerable and high-risk groups, including men who have sex with men (MSM) and female sex...

International Monetary Fund (IMF) Representative to Jamaica, Dr. Constant Lonkeng Ngouana, says that as Jamaica’s debt is reduced, more money will become available to invest for the development of the country. Speaking at a meeting of the Rotary Club of Kingston East and Port Royal at Eden Garden Wellness and Spa, Lady Musgrave Road, on February 11, Dr. Ngouana pointed...

The information and communications technology (ICT) network underpinning connectivity across Government is being revamped to further improve public service delivery. The Public Sector Efficiency and ICT pillar is one of five targeted under the Public Sector Transformation Programme, now under way. Finance and the Public Service Minister, Dr. the Hon. Nigel Clarke, who provided a programme update recently, said ICT...