JSIF Supports Revision of National Policy for Gender Equality

The Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF), through its Basic Needs Trust Fund (BNTF), has been supporting the Bureau of Gender Affairs with the revision of the National Policy for Gender Equality (NPGE).

Project Manager of the BNTF at JSIF, Dainty Ann Barrett Smith, told JIS News that the total value of the support is $8.8 million.
“We are financing the review and the revision of the National Policy for Gender Equality,” said Mrs. Barrett Smith, adding that the BNTF “allocates a portion of its funding to institutional strengthening and capacity building.”

The NPGE is aimed at gender mainstreaming in national development, thereby enabling men and women to contribute equally to the country’s growth, while having equitable access to the protection and privileges of Jamaican citizenship.

Mrs. Barrett Smith noted that the Bureau of Gender Affairs (BGA) is also engaged to find out the areas of gaps for which they need support.
She pointed out that in addition to the revision of the policy, they will also “be getting a Monitoring and Evaluation Framework to help them set targets and analyse how they will be able to meet the targets for the policy; training gender focal points across the ministries and agencies; and getting guidelines for the implementation of the policy and communication strategy.”

The Project Manager also said that 30 persons were trained under the seventh cycle of the BNTF to bolster the BGA’s existing Gender Focal Point (GFP) programme, which is geared towards ensuring equal opportunities for men and women in all ministries, departments and agencies.

The BNTF, now in its ninth cycle, is a special fund developed and hosted within the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and Borrowing Member Countries (BMC). The money collected is redistributed to the BMCs in the form of grants to allow for the development of critical infrastructure and social services within those countries.