MONTEGO BAY, July 18 (JIS): Mayor of Kingston and St. Andrew, Senator Councillor Delroy Williams, says a coordinated approach to urban planning and development in the town centres and cities will improve responsiveness and accountability in the Municipalities.

Mr. Williams, who made a presentation at the recent Local Governance Conference in Montego Bay, St. James, said the urban sector is a key contributor to economic growth, as cities and towns are hubs for jobs, educational and health facilities, and transportation.

“Good urban governance and accountability require technocratic and professional expertise, but equally as important is a capable municipal service. City managers and urban planners must adopt a long term outlook in policy formation,” he argued.

The Mayor said that a coordinated approach among agencies is the revolutionary way which provides a procedure that helps cities identify their strengths and weaknesses, while defining the main strategies for local development.

“This is absolutely necessary for change. The public services need to be aligned and interconnected. People must see us as one entity, so when roads are being fixed, water pipes are fixed also – at the same time,” he emphasised.

Mr. Williams said that the coordinated approach will also help to avoid the pitfalls of making quick decisions that will prove costly over time.

“Mayors, you are in a critical role to bring this coordination together and to encourage State agencies to start working together to actualize true urban development,” he told the audience.

Mr. Williams said the decisions that influence planning must be derived from robust debates and inclusive contributions from all stakeholders to “work the policies to a logical end, to ensure that before they are implemented, they address critical urban challenges faced by all.”

“Coordination is essential for solving urban challenges, and modern urban challenges fall outside of existing organizational boundaries. So, let us have plans that have a futuristic outlook that relate to our policy formulation. We have to think, plan and work together for the future,” the Mayor said.

MONTEGO BAY, July 18 (JIS): Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, is recommending that community members be trained as disaster first responders.

Addressing the Ministry of Local Government and Community Development’s Local Governance Conference in Montego Bay on July 17, 2018; Mr. Holness also challenged the island’s municipal corporations to train their staff in disaster management.

“If the corporations require assistance, they should collaborate with existing bodies, such as the Housing, Opportunity, Production and Employment (HOPE) programme to get training to equip young people in communities to assist in times of natural or man-made disasters,” the Prime Minister suggested.

Mr. Holness, who is also Chairman of the National Disaster Risk Management Council, said this will help the country to be better prepared to tackle the frequency and intensity of disasters, which can destabilise the economy.

“Local government has so much to do with preparing the minds of the citizens as it relates to natural disasters. A big part of this preparedness is training coordinators to re-culture how citizens operate, which includes getting people not to live in gully courses and on river banks,” the Prime Minister said.

“There is nothing more powerful than the councillor explaining to them (citizens) the dangers they face when they do things that could create disaster risks, and having locally structured programmes to facilitate their movement and prevent and lower these risks,” he added.

Meanwhile, Local Government and Community Development Minister, Hon. Desmond McKenzie, said it is his desire to see noticeable improvements in disaster risk reduction, mitigation and resilience modalities in all municipal corporations.

The Minister said he also welcomes the recommendations made by Prime Minister Holness.

Mr. McKenzie noted that the conference is a precursor to the regional conference on disaster management and risk reduction to be held in July 2020.

MONTEGO BAY, July 18 (JIS): Minister of Local Government and Community Development, Honourable Desmond McKenzie, says the staging of the inaugural conference on local governance provides the opportunity to explore strategies aimed at enhancing operations.

He noted that with the local authorities being responsible for 75 per cent of the services provided to the public, it is important to review and examine measures to improve the direction of local governance.

“The Ministry is responsible for roads, minor water supply, garbage collection, street light, cemeteries, public recreation, markets, butcher licence, infirmaries, community development… you name it.

“All these services that the entire country needs require the input of local government, so we must have conferences of this nature to revisit and improve on how we approach matters,” he said while addressing the event being held at the Jewel Grande Montego Bay Resort in St. James.

Among the critical areas being addressed at the three-day event, which got under way on July 17, is the enhanced training and sensitisation of staff about their roles and responsibilities. “This should improve the question of accountability to prevent deficiencies in the system,” Minister McKenzie pointed out.

He welcomed the involvement of municipal members from other regions and noted that their participation in the conference signals the value of partnerships in strengthening and improving operations in Jamaica.

For her part, Acting Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Marsha Henry Martin, shared that the conference is an important milestone for local governance in Jamaica and the wider Caribbean.

“At the end of this, we anticipate that the local government practitioners will be rejuvenated and recognise the requirement to be more accountable and responsive to the people,” she said.

“A barber in his shop or hairdresser, the butcher, the developer and even the homeowner who desires to get an approved plan, persons who require welfare of cemetery services must engage the local authorities, and we want everyone to benefit from the highest quality of service from local practitioners,” Mrs. Henry Martin pointed out.

She said that space has been created for interface and dialogue about these and other matters that are in support of the national growth thrust.

MONTEGO BAY, July 17 (JIS): Mayor of Montego Bay, Councillor Homer Davis, is calling for greater synergy between the municipal corporations and central government.

Speaking at the opening of the Ministry of Local Government and Community Development local governance conference in Montego Bay, St. James on July 17, Mayor Davis said he welcomes the conference, as it brings together the decision makers from the municipalities to make plans and positive changes to local government.

“If we work together, surely our efforts will help us in our respective municipal corporations to push the agenda for national development. We can also learn from each other and adopt best practices that work,” the Mayor said.

He encouraged the mayors and administrative leaders of the municipal corporations to take the time to understand their roles and how they can contribute to their parishes to achieve the desired synergy and success.

“As mayors and councillors, we are the ones that the citizens from our divisions hold accountable for issues related to garbage collection, for the repair and installation of street lights and for issues relating to drain cleaning. So, let us use our positions as public officers to be the positive change… Jamaica has been yearning for,” the Mayor said.

He expressed concern about the local authorities not having the power to take corrective or disciplinary action against agencies, and requested Minister, Hon. Desmond McKenzie, to consider his petition.

“The development of the parishes can be negatively impacted by the inaction of agencies. We must be able to hold agencies accountable when they fail the citizens. That is why I am urging all mayors, let us petition that we are given more teeth to manage the affairs of our parishes,” he said.

The conference is being held under the theme ‘Strengthening responsiveness and accountability within the local governance framework’.

KINGSTON, July 17 (JIS): Prime Minister, the Most Honourable Andrew Holness, says he will be examining the procedure for the granting of building approvals by the local government authorities in order to speed up the process.

He argued that “territorial behaviour” by the municipal bodies in the issuance of such permits often results in delays, negatively impacting the country’s building approval rating and hindering national growth targets.

“Jamaica is ranked 70, which is second in the region, in the World Bank ‘Ease of Doing Business’ report. However, with respect to construction permits, which deals with building approvals, the country stands at 98 globally out of 190 countries,” the Prime Minister lamented.

“I am absolutely committed to the process of getting government efficient. So, I am taking this opportunity to raise my concerns to the local government institutions that we cannot allow internal territorial behaviour to slow up national [progress],” he said.

The Prime Minister was addressing mayors, councillors and administrators at the opening ceremony of the Ministry of Local Government and Community Development’s Local Governance Conference in Montego Bay, St. James, on Tuesday, July 17, 2018.

He urged the officers to make use of the Application Management and Data Automation (AMANDA) system, which is designed to track and manage development applications, in order to speed up the delivery of building permits and approvals.

“I hope that at this conference, when you’re discussing responsiveness and accountability… the AMANDA system is on the top of your list. We have spent a lot of money equipping your offices with the relevant tools to yield the results. I’m hoping that you have been training your staff to use it. We can’t spend all this money to put in place a system, to use a technology-generated support system and then don’t use it,” the Prime Minister pointed out.

The three-day local governance conference- which concludes on Thursday, July 19 – is being held under the theme ‘Strengthening Responsiveness and Accountability within the Local Governance Framework’.

KINGSTON, July 13 (JIS): The Ministry of Local Government and Community Development will be hosting its inaugural Local Governance Conference from July 17 to 19 at the Jewel Grande Montego Bay Resort & Spa in St. James.

The three-day meeting is in keeping with the Ministry’s focus on improving the effectiveness of governance at the local level.

Under the theme ‘Strengthening responsiveness and accountability within the local governance framework’, the event will bring together mayors, chief executive officers, chief financial officers and parish disaster coordinators to examine the role of local government in achieving Jamaica’s macroeconomic and financial targets for 2030 and beyond.

The objective is to strengthen the capacity of political and administrative leaders in the execution of their functions and increase awareness about the role of local government in achieving the national growth agenda.

Portfolio Minister, Honourable Desmond McKenzie, said the conference, which will be the first in a series of biennial events, will facilitate discussions and presentations on promoting good governance within “a legislative framework that guides the operations of the local authorities, as well as provide tools that will aid in improving service delivery”.

“I expect great things from the first staging. I believe that through discussion and decisions over the next three days and beyond, this assembly of minds will bring lasting value to local government,” he said.

Areas for discussion are standardisation of the disaster management budget, standard operating procedures, emergency operation centre processes, health and welfare matters, among others.

“My focus on local government has been to bring change to the operations of the Ministry. In this way, the local government system can truly make its full mark on the lives of Jamaicans in areas of disaster management and mitigation,” Minister McKenzie said.

CARTAGENA, Colombia:Honourable Desmond McKenzie says Jamaica is committed to realizing its disaster risk reduction targets.

Minister of Local Government and Community Development, Honourable Desmond McKenzie, is away from the island on official business.

The Minister is leading the Jamaican delegation, consisting of central Ministry officials and officials from the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM), to attend the 6^th Regional Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction in the Americas being held in Cartagena, Colombia.

The Conference is organized by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) and the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA). It is intended among other things, to allow government and non-government organizations, scientific and academic institutions and private sector interests among other stakeholders to share their experiences and chart the way forward as they work together to implement the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction – approved in 2015 – and to which Jamaica is a signatory.

Minister McKenzie, who is the Deputy Chairman of the National Disaster Risk Management Council, says the platform is a critical opportunity for Jamaica to provide the Sendai Framework signatory nations with an update about its disaster risk reduction efforts.

“The Government is taking important steps to improve national resilience, to ensure that we break the cycle of playing catch-up behind disasters, especially seasonal ones. This Conference allows us to share our experiences, the new things we are doing, and also to learn from the other signatory states, the scientific community and to refine our implementation strategies, as we reaffirm our commitment to making the Sendai Framework, and therefore disaster risk reduction, a standard way of life for our people.”

The Minister will return to the island on June 25, 2018.

KINGSTON, Jamaica: The Ministry of Local Government and Community Development is partnering with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to implement early warning systems in four parishes in an effort to improve disaster-resilience in the country.

The project, which will cost US$1 million (approximately J$129m), will commence in 2019 in the parishes of St. Catherine, St. Mary, St. Thomas and Portland.

“We are the third country outside of Cuba and the Dominica Republic that will benefit from this programme with the UNDP where they will help us create a National Climate Information and Early Warning Service for Disaster Risk Reduction,” explained Portfolio Minister, Honourable Desmond McKenzie, during the launch of the 2018 National Hurricane Preparedness Campaign.

“This project will be a shining example of how we can, through hard work, ingenuity and partnership, create lasting resilience to disasters.”

Early warning systems are used to relay timely and relevant information to people especially in vulnerable areas prior to a disaster.

The UNDP is the United Nations’ lead development agency and works to connect countries to a network of global knowledge, experience and technical and financial resources. According to its website, the UNDP empowers lives and supports nations to become resilient to crises and disasters.

Meanwhile, Minister McKenzie says that work is being undertaken to reduce the exposure to flooding and other consequences of hurricanes in the parishes Clarendon and St. Ann.

The farming community of Douglas Castle in St. Ann is a vulnerable area where residents are often marooned whenever storm conditions occur.

“We have decided to construct a box culvert which will effectively channel away storm water as well as raising a section of the Douglas castle main road by approximately 15 metres. I’m told by the technical people that once we do this, it will help to preserve crops and livestock and keep the community physically connected to the rest of the country,” the Minister stated.

“A strategic approach to the threat pf hurricanes also involves ensuring maximum speed and efficiency in the response to this form of disaster.

To this end, $10 million will be spent to construct two storage facilities and retrofit four emergency shelters in Northern Clarendon. The storage facilities will be sited at the Frankfield Police Station and the Kellits Primary School, respectively.

The Minister added that “these will ensure that disaster relief supplies are readily available at all time to over 50,000 people living in more than 15 communities in Northern Clarendon”.

Four emergency shelters will also be retrofitted to increase capacity and provide greater comfort for its users. They are Portland Cottage Primary; Alley/Race Course; Scotts Pass and Staceyville Primary Schools.