MINISTRY OF PLANNING, ECLAC, UNDESA AND UNOSD HOSTS THREE DAY TRAINING OF TRAINEES WORKSHOP
The Ministry of Planning, Economic Development, Climate Resilience, Sustainable Development and Renewable Energy in collaboration with the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) and the United Nations Office of Sustainable Development (UNOSD) has hosted a three day Training of Trainers workshop.
The three day workshop was aimed towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals in Dominica.
Coordinator of the Statistics and Socio Development at ECLAC, Dr. Abdullahi Abdulkadri says this workshop is part of a technical assistance programme currently being implemented to provide support to Dominica.
“We are having a workshop, a Training of Trainers workshop, sustainable recovery and resilience towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals in the Commonwealth of Dominica. This is a technical assistance programme that we are implementing in collaboration with the Ministry of Planning, Economic Development, Climate Resilience, Sustainable Development and Renewable Energy to provide support to Dominica both in the private and public sector including the civil society stakeholders in planning for the post covid-19 recover in a sustainable manner and for such activities to be resilient in withstanding other shocks that might come in the future,” Dr. Abdulkadri stated.
Earlier this year, Minister for Planning, Economic Development, Climate Resilience, Sustainable Development, and Renewable Energy, Hon. Dr. Vince Henderson presented Dominica’s first Voluntary National Review (VNR) at the United Nations Economic and Social Council High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development.
Dr. Abdulkadri says coming from that VNR presentation, they were able to identify the challenges that Dominica faced in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
“So coming from that, we were able to establish a baseline. The country was able to report on how it has implemented the SDGs where the challenges are and the achievements that have been recorded. So in that is a lesson for us, that there are areas in which there will be a need to improve capacity. So this is part of our response to support Dominica towards that effort,” he explained.
Dr. Abdulkadri noted that the workshop aimed to increase the capacity of stakeholders to deal with these challenges.
“We are quite accustomed to the different vulnerabilities that the Caribbean and Dominica is faced with, and in that is the emphasis on the impact of climate change, the effect of frequent climatic events. So what we are trying to do is improve capacity to respond to those circumstances,” Dr. Abdulkadri went on to state.
Over thirty stakeholders from various sectors participated in this three day workshop.
Meanwhile, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Planning, Economic Development, Climate Resilience, Sustainable Development and Renewable Energy, Mrs. Gloria Joseph says a study conducted by the UN showed that the covid-19 pandemic severely impacted all sectors of Dominica’s economy.
She says the hope is that the training received during the workshop will be transferred to the various sectors by the participants.
“We were able to assess the impact of covid-19 on the economic sector particularly, agriculture, trade and tourism. And out of that we thought it would be necessary to look at enhancing our technical effectiveness to respond to those types of disasters. It is not only to have the financial resources but to be able to position ourselves, our human resource capacity to be able to act and not only react in situations like that and it is with that in mind that we have this workshop going on. And we have a number of participants from various sectors and the aim is that the capacity building for them will be transferred within the industry or the sector that they represent and we could do better in the event of another shock to our economy,” Mrs. Joseph explained.