$1 Billion for Integrated Community Development Project
Photo: Mark Bell
Deputy Chairman, Zones of Special Operations Social Intervention Committee and Managing Director, Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF), Omar Sweeney.
More than $1 billion has been allocated in the 2018/19 Estimates of Expenditure, now before the House of Representatives, to continue work on the Jamaica Integrated Community Development Project.
The project, being implemented by the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF), aims to enhance access by persons to basic urban infrastructure and services, and support increased safety in selected vulnerable and volatile inner-city communities islandwide, of which 18 are being targeted.
Residents in those communities will also benefit from alternative livelihoods, with the project also facilitating institutional strengthening for urban management and overall public safety.
For this year, it is proposed to continue work to rehabilitate roads and improve access to water and sanitation facilities in six communities, remove zinc fences and replace those with suitable substitutions, clean up 30 communities, initiate an environmental programme in 20 primary schools, train and engage 165 environmental wardens, enrol 130 persons in level 2 vocational skills training at HEART/NTA, and conduct Grade Six Achievement Test clinics for 1,440 students.
Achievements between October 2014, when the project commenced, and December 2017 include the completion of integrated infrastructure projects in nine communities and removal of zinc fences in five others, the delivery of training and certification programmes, the completion of electrical works/installation in 360 households, and the provision of equipment to the Jamaica Constabulary Force and National Land Agency.
The project is funded by the World Bank.
