JSIF gets $914 Million to Carry out Social Development Projects

A total of $914 million has been allocated to the Jamaica Social Investment Fund in the 2007/08 Estimates of Expenditure, which are now before the House of Representatives.
The money will finance several initiatives, including the Inner City Basic Services project ($328.8 million); the Basic Needs Trust Fund ($19.1million); the Poverty Reduction Programme ($76.1 million); and the National Community Development Project ($390.2 million). Meanwhile, $100 million has been designated for institutional strengthening.
The funds are being provided by the Caribbean Development Bank; the European Union; the Government of the Netherlands; the Inter American Development Bank; the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development; and the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries. The Government of Jamaica is providing $525 million of the total.
During the fiscal period, it is anticipated that JSIF will complete the national community development project, with projects valued at US$5 million; implement 102 projects in the project portfolio; and rehabilitate 30 roads in collaboration with the Ministry of Local Government and Environment at a cost of $294 million. For the 2006/07 fiscal year, JSIF had 78 projects in its project implementation portfolio valued at approximately $471 million, while 72 projects were completed at an approximated cost of $550 million.
The JSIF was established in 1996 and has a revised completion date of 2011. Its mandate is to assist the Government of Jamaica in responding to the needs of the most vulnerable across the country, by establishing an efficient and demand-driven mechanism to deliver basic services to provide infrastructure to the poor in the population; provide resources to the areas of basic social and economic infrastructure and social services; and expand the government’s institutional capacity to identify, implement, manage and sustain community-based sub-projects.