THE country has recorded broad, notable gains across the four goals underpinning the long-term National Development Plan — Vision 2030 Jamaica.

Being spearheaded by the Vision 2030 Jamaica Secretariat, the plan seeks to position the island to achieve developed country status and make it the “place of choice to live, work, raise families and do business”.

The national goals are to ensure that Jamaicans are: Empowered to achieve their fullest potential; the Jamaican society is secure, cohesive and just; Jamaica’s economy is prosperous; and Jamaica has a healthy natural environment.

Director general of the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ), where the secretariat is based, Dr Wayne Henry provided an update during the agency’s recent, digital, quarterly media briefing.

He said areas where advances have been made include macroeconomic development; macroeconomic stability; reduction in unemployment; increases in the use of non-fossil fuel-based energy, such as alternatives and renewables; governance, particularly in government effectiveness; economic growth in some industries, particularly tourism, manufacturing and finance and insurance services; and infrastructural development and housing quality.

He noted that development progress under successive Medium-Term Socio-Economic Policy Frameworks (MTF), which are the centrepieces of the plan’s implementation, have been mixed.

Each MTF includes the national outcome indicators as well as relevant targets, covering a three-year period.

Dr Henry advised that 75 indicators are being used to measure the state of Jamaica’s progress along the economic, social, environmental, and governance spheres of development. He indicated that the results of the latest update and data are based on defined targets for 2018 and 2021, with 2007 being the baseline year.

Dr Henry said the data show that 64 per cent of indicators improved over the baseline year while 32 per cent showed no improvement or worsened.

He said a further breakdown shows that 17 per cent of the Vision 2030 Jamaica targets were met or exceeded. In addition, 47 per cent of the indicators showed some improvement over the 2007 baseline year towards meeting the targets; 32 per cent of the indicators showed no improvement or worsened; while four per cent of the indicators could not be compared in this way due to a lack of agreed targets and/or data for the relevant period.

“There have also been areas of challenge owing to insufficient progress and/or development losses,” the director general noted.

He indicated that prior to the onset of the novel coronavirus pandemic, the PIOJ commenced a phased process of strategic review of the national planning and implementation framework, noting that one area of focus which has been given even greater priority is reviewing and revising the 2030 targets.

He explained that this requires empirical assessments, statistical modelling, and forecasting based on reliable, valid and timely data.

“This effort is challenged by shifts in the dynamics of the global environment, partly induced by the [novel cornavirus] pandemic, geopolitical tensions, war and emerging threats,” he pointed

Dr Henry emphasised that Vision 2030 Jamaica is “especially impacted” by several variables and uncertainties “which [will] increase the longer the horizon [is] over which we plan. It is also impacted by lessons learned during implementation”.

“In this regard, the PIOJ is currently seeking to engage relevant technical assistance to support the strengthening of its monitoring and evaluation framework, and review the performance measurement framework, including the indicators and targets,” he informed.

Dr Henry said that an update on this undertaking will be provided during the next quarterly briefing.