THE INITIATIVE AIMS TO ENHANCE GOVERNMENT’S CAPACITY TO SYSTEMATICALLY ADDRESS GENDER EQUALITY PRIORITIES.

The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) funded Gender Mainstreaming Project gets on-stream with the signing of the consultancy contract by Niagara College on Monday May 06, 2019.  Niagara College emerged successful from three proposals considered from the shortlisted firms for this consultancy. The Central Tenders Board approved the selection of Niagara College to undertake the project last week, which aims to enhance the capacity of the Government of Saint Lucia to systematically address gender equality priorities in their planning and programming processes.

Ensuring gender equality outcomes in national planning requires deliberate, systematic and ongoing capacity building for planners in all Ministries, Departments and Agencies. A team of experts will be in Saint Lucia for their Inception Mission from May 6 – 10, 2019.  Whilst here the team will meet with the Project Coordinator, Dr. Claudia Louis, the Project Advisory Team and key stakeholders to help finalize their work plan.

Their inception mission will focus on the following key areas: partnership development and stakeholder engagement; project management and accountability; planning and budgeting document review and analysis; and gender training and institutional capacity building needs analysis.

The team is expected to prepare and present an inception report, which will outline the gender training and institutional capacity building needs for key Ministries, Departments and Agencies in the Public Service. Training packages will be developed to suit the needs of Saint Lucia and at a follow-up mission, the team will engage in training exercises for officers of the Department of Gender Relations and public servants in various Ministries, Departments and Agencies on gender analysis and gender inclusion in development planning.

The programme is funded through a Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) grant.