KINGSTON, Jamaica — Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator Kamina Johnson Smith, says that Jamaica’s domestic sustainable development needs will not be lost in the new regional approach of the United Nations’ Multi-country Sustainable Development Framework (UN MSDF).

“I am mindful of concerns that national needs could be lost in a regional approach. However, we are cognizant that the MSDF will be pursued through separate country implementation plans, which will capture country-specific priorities and outcomes of each beneficiary state over the five-year period,” Johnson Smith said yesterday.

She added that, in Jamaica’s case, the implementation plan will be fully aligned with its national development plan, Vision 2030.

However, she said that achieving the objectives of the MSDF will require “continuous, systematic monitoring, evaluating and reporting”.

She was speaking at the ceremonial signing and official launch of the UN MSDF at the Spanish Court Hotel, New Kingston.

Twenty-three UN agencies working in Jamaica have combined technical expertise and financial resources with other development partners in the Caribbean, to create one combined programme of assistance to the English and Dutch speaking Caribbean states between 2017 and 2021.

The new unprecedented regional programme is the UN MSDF, which has kicked-off with a budget of US$198 million and was officially signed in Kingston on Thursday.

Balford Henry