KINGSTON, Jamaica — The Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport will be implementing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the University of the West Indies Open Campus for the anti-sexual harassment training of managers and other workers in the public and private sectors.

Research will also be conducted on sexual harassment and workplace violence, says Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport Olivia Grange.

Delivering her presentation in the 2020/2021 Sectoral Debate in the House of Representatives yesterday, the minister said that sexual harassment is a very serious matter that “militates against the desired level of peace, harmony and happiness in our country,” she said.

The minister pointed out that she has been tasked with chairing the Joint Select Committee of Parliament that is examining the Bill entitled, ‘An Act to Make Provision for the Prevention of Sexual Harassment and for Connected Matters’, and that the committee will be taking from the submissions each comment, critique, and suggestion into consideration when compiling the final report by the end of the year.

She again encouraged organisations and members of the public to make submissions to the Joint Select Committee and make their voices heard on the draft Bill.

“Their input can make a difference. I use this opportunity to remind the public that the Bill is proposing to deal with conduct in the workplace, institutions and tenant-landlord interactions, such as physical contact of a sexual nature, a demand or request for sex or favours of a sexual nature, the making of sexual suggestions, remarks or innuendos, the showing of pornography or the display of images or objects of a sexual nature and any other physical, gestural, verbal or non-verbal or visual conduct of a sexual nature,” Grange said.

Additionally, she pointed out that the ministry is promoting a partnership with the United Nations Development Programme, through the repurposed Enabling Gender-Responsive Recovery, Climate and Environment Resilience in the Caribbean (EnGenDER) initiative.

The project will provide support to vulnerable and underserved groups in selected rural and urban communities, including the delivery of care packages to 1,400 households, provision of ‘Dignity Kits’ to adolescents in the Women’s Centre of Jamaica Foundation programme, provision of cash transfers to 200 heads of households, and provision of cash grants to five entrepreneurs as part of the Empowerment Support Programme.