Jamaica and the World Bank will be collaborating over the next three to four years to implement programmes and initiatives across ministries to develop and upskill the country’s human capital.

The initiatives, which aim to accelerate Jamaica’s pace of development, will be carried out under the Jamaica-Country Partnership Framework (CPF) 2024 to 2027.

Speaking at a recent World Bank country partnership framework event at the AC Marriott in Kingston, Minister of Finance and the Public Service Dr Nigel Clarke noted that human capital development is a major pillar of the partnership framework, involving education, health, and social protection.

“Having resolved our macroeconomic issues… what is now essential is that we leverage that to improve people’s lives. We have to ensure that we improve the quality and quantity of the skills that are available in the Jamaican population to support higher levels of growth that can give the revenue that we require for further investment.” he said.

Through the partnership, the Government will utilise the World Bank’s technical resources to produce policy improvements at an expedited pace to improve the quality of life and standard of living of Jamaicans.

“As far as their technical resources are concerned, the World Bank is unparalleled in virtually every sector. It’s an institution that works with 180 countries around the world and so they bring to bear in any sector a wealth of experience, a range of potential solutions and they can describe how those solutions have worked in other countries, and for a small country like Jamaica that is a tremendous value,” Dr Clarke noted.

The country partnership framework is a strategic development plan that marks the World Bank’s engagement in Jamaica with key targets and activities. The process begins with a systematic country diagnostic that looks at the challenges and opportunities for achieving the shared goal of reducing poverty and boosting shared prosperity.

Dr Clarke outlined that through the country partnership framework the assistance to the Government will be twofold — in the public sector the organisation will help to reform policies and in the private sector it will help to mobilise private capital in structured transactions such as public-private partnerships (PPP).

Meanwhile, World Bank Country Director Lilia Burunciuc commended the Government’s continued commitment to improving the country’s economic and social fundamentals.

“Jamaica also has a lot of knowledge that we can help to share with the rest of the world. You have seen the latest articles in the
Financial Times about the Jamaican miracle, because it’s the only country in the last 10 years which was able to really reduce its debt to fix its macro issues without debt restructuring, and doing it in a way that has overall societal consensus around it.

“I think this experience should be really shared with other countries around the world,” she noted.

Burunciuc said there is opportunity for Jamaica and the World Bank to work together to enable the country to take advantage of prospects in the orange (creative) and blue (marine and freshwater) economies.