Poverty Alleviation Drive Gets $300 Million Boost

The Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF) has been allocated a sum of $300 million to carry out poverty alleviation programmes in the 2004/05 fiscal year.
As stated in the Estimates of Expenditure, which was tabled in the House of Representatives on March 31, by Finance and Planning Minister, Dr. Omar Davies, the money will assist Government’s efforts to establish an efficient demand-driven and complementary mechanism to deliver basic services and infrastructure to the poor, as part of the poverty reduction strategy.
Started in 1996, the project has funded the completion of 400 projects covering the areas of social infrastructure, including the provision of water, basic schools, health centres, homes for the elderly and community centres; economic infrastructure, to entail the provision of roads and agro processing facilities; social services, including skills training, guidance and counseling, conflict resolution and organization strengthening.
It is being financed by the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), European Union (EU), Government of Netherlands, the Inter American Development Bank (IDB), International Bank of Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
Over the years, JSIF has assisted the Government in responding to the needs of the most vulnerable population groups in Jamaica, by establishing an efficient and demand-driven mechanism to deliver the basic services to provide infrastructure to the poor in the population, providing resources in the areas of basic social and economic infrastructure and social services and expanding the Government’s institutional capacity to identify, implement, manage and sustain community-based projects.