Jamaicans not buying into Vision 2030

Country on the way to achieving first-world status despite widespread skepticism

JAMAICANS on a whole are not buying into an ambitious plan, which has the rare support of the two major political parties, to transform the island into a modern first-world country in the next 15 years.

But against the odds, the guardians of Vision 2030, the national development programme that is supposed to make Jamaica the place of choice to live, work, raise families and do business, are reporting substantial progress in implementing the major elements of the plan, albeit largely under the radar.

"Since its implementation, 22 per cent of the Vision 2030 Jamaica targets (46 indicators) for the period 2009 to 2012 have already been met; 30 per cent of indicators showed some improvement towards achieving the targets and 39 per cent showed no improvement or worsened over the period," said Peisha Bryan-Lee, social sector specialist at the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) which is mandated to make the vision a reality.

Not unexpectedly, the main areas of under-performance were related to economic indicators which account for half of the total number of indicators in the framework of national indicators and targets established under the plan, Bryan-Lee told the Jamaica Observer in an interview on the status of Vision 2030.

"Economic indicators represent almost two-thirds of the indicators that showed no improvement or worsened up to 2012 compared to the baseline year of 2007. This was primarily due, in the first instance, to the impact of the global economic downturn of 2008-2009, the worst global economic downturn in 80 years, which had a disproportionate impact on Jamaica's small, open and vulnerable economy," she said.

"The recession reduced demand for Jamaica's exports and affected the performance of many economic indicators such as the growth rate and unemployment. Nevertheless, positive performance was recorded in several economic indicators over the period, including the inflation rate, nominal GDP (Gross Domestic Product) per capita, fiscal balance as a percentage of GDP, and the agriculture production index," the PIOJ official reported.

Bryan-Lee admitted that one of the biggest setbacks to the Vision 2030 plan was getting buy-in from a majority in the populace, suggesting that many Jamaicans viewed it as a pie-in-the-sky programme that they were unwilling to take on board at this time when they were busy tackling every-day bread and butter issues.

"The ability to get people to envision better days is more often than not met with scepticism. The lack of human resources has further compounded this problem," she said, noting that "the lack of bodies" devoted to the programme meant that PIOJ could do little more than respond to invitations to promote awareness of the Vision 2030 Jamaica plan to local organisations.

Dennis Chung, executive director of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) who shares the Vision, has an explanation for the apparent lack of Jamaican enthusiasm. He said that although the Vision 2030 Plan was "a great document", not many stakeholders were aware of what was going on with the programme.

Asked if he thought that Jamaica would achieve First World status by 2030, Chung told the Observer: "It is possible. (But) a First World country is more than just developing roads. It will be difficult unless we get significant growth. The current IMF agreement makes if difficult. First World country is about how we work and think. I don't think Jamaicans have that mind-set. They still have colonisation in their thinking and systems."

But if Jamaicans were slow off the mark, not so the Guatemalans who have been noticing what the PIOJ has been doing, at a time when they were finalising their own development plan. And with development and planning a hot button issue in the Caribbean in terms of implementation and monitoring, Jamaica was invited to share best practices and lessons learnt from Vision 2030. On June 19, 2014, PIOJ took the spotlight in a presentation on its work at a regional Technical Seminar on Planning for Development in Latin America and the Caribbean focusing on monitoring and evaluation, held in that South American country.

Vision 2030 Jamaica Plan which left the drawing board six years ago, was crafted on the basis of seven guiding principles, four national goals, 15 national outcomes and several key national strategies and actions. The first two Three-Year Medium Term Socio-Economic Policy Framework (MTF) for the fiscal years (covering 2009 to 2015) have been completed and implemented. Work has commenced in preparing the third MTF covering the period 2015 to 2018.

"It allows for tracking and monitoring of the project. It informs trends and targets for 2030. It allows us to reassess long-term planning and policies," said Bryan-Lee in explaining the benefits of the three-year MTF approach.

In addition, 12 Thematic Working Groups (TWGs) have been setup to monitor implementation, monitoring and evaluation of Vision 2030 Jamaica. The TWGs comprise members from the public sector, private sector, civil society and international development partners. The current TWGs are for the areas: environment and planning, hazard risk reduction and adaptation to climate change, energy and minerals development, governance, tourism, health, education and training, social protection, justice, national security, population and infrastructure and construction.

Bryan-Lee said that through technical assistance from UNICEF, the PIOJ had engaged a consultant to update its e-Dashboard with the most recent data. Eventually, the agency would seek to have the features installed that would facilitate in-house updates of its online portal. The e-Dashboard of indicators was introduced in 2010 and includes select indicators that track progress towards achieving the national goals and their corresponding outcomes of the Vision 2030 Jamaica National Development Plan. It uses the following eight areas of measurement of national development and social well-being: health status; labour force quality; security status; justice status and economic growth.

On the awareness side, Bryan-Lee said more public education sessions were being conducted around the island. She reported that as at the end of December 2014 the Vision 2030 Jamaica Secretariat had distributed approximately 45,333 copies of the popular version (summary of Vision 2030 Jamaica Plan Document) island wide. A total of 2,269 copies of the plan; 993 copies of the MTF 2009-2012 and 1,423 CDs containing the Plan, MTF and Sector Plans were distributed to a wide-cross of stakeholders in the public and private sectors as well as civil society.

An electronic copy of the quarterly newsletter -- Vision 2030 Jamaica Update -- was produced and distributed to target groups, including the Diaspora. Last year also, the Vision 2030 Jamaica/Cumberland High School Citizens' Incentive Awards Project was launched to promote institutionalisation of Vision 2030 Jamaica and buy-in by students and staff of the Cumberland High School. The 2012 and 2013 Festival Queens served as Vision 2030 Jamaica Youth Ambassadors

Senior technical officer (Mitigation) in the Ministry of Water, Land, Environment and Climate Change, Gerald Lindo told the Jamaica Observer of plans to increase awareness of one of the national outcomes -- hazard risk reduction and adaptation to climate change. Lindo said the ministry's Climate Change Division (CCD) had partnered with the Govermnment's information arm, the Jamaica Information Service (JIS), to produce 20 five-minute ration features; six five-minute dramatisation radio features; three 30-second radio PSAs (public service announcement), a television PSA and a five-minute feature. This programme will run from February to July 2015. The CCD also engaged in a logo completion for students ages 12- 25 and mock Climate Change Conference targeting high school students.

Lindo said his ministry was solidy behind the Vision 2030 Jamaica plan, adding: "The OCCD will work to make sure everything they do is congruent with the overall national development plan, and are committed to making Jamaica the place of choice to work, raise families and do business. With climate change being a major developmental issue now and for the foreseeable future, achieving those aspects of Vision 2030 Jamaica having to do with hazard risk reduction and adaptation are even more relevant now."

Speaking for the Opposition, Andrew Wheatley, the spokesperson on science, ICT and digital society, suggested that there had been some gains made even though 2030 was not far off. But he admitted it was "hard to say" if the goals outlined in the plan Vision would be realised.

"As it relates to the technology aspects, careful review of the ICT sector plan in the Vision 2030 strategy will highlight some of the major concerns that the Opposition has as it relates to how we are growing our ICT sector and creating the environment that fosters continued investment and competitiveness, especially as it relates to attracting the necessary foreign direct investment," said Wheatley.

"We have not created the most conducive investment environment for what I would term the grassroots ICT sector. Some might argue that the BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) industry is thriving but other schools of thought are that BPO is not the truest form of ICT. Local talent and budding entrepreneurs in the ICT sector are having a hard time thriving. This does not bode well for an economy that needs to balance production and consumption of technology," he cautioned.

Wheatley argued that repeal of outdated technology related laws (Telecoms Act of 2000) and the review and promulgation of the existing (Electronic Transaction Act, Cybercrimes Act) and new laws (ICT Act, Data Protection Act) were cornerstones of the environment needed to foster the kind of growth that is needed in the sector.

"Right now we are terribly behind as it relates to or legislation and I think that until this is addressed, the chances of success in realising the goals in the ICT sector plan within Vision 2030 are under serious threat," said the Opposition spokesman, ahe noted that another key component of success in the ICT sector related to the adjustment of the curriculum in secondary and tertiary institution to take on a more technology-oriented approach.

"Encouraging more entrepreneurial activity in the ICT space is key and ensuring that the curriculum is in step with industry trends is also key. I think we are falling down in this area also, even in light of the e-Learning project and the associated tablets in schools initiative," Wheatley said.

Asked how the Vision 2030 programme was funded, Bryan-Lee said there was no specific budget to implement the priority strategies and actions to achieve the goals and outcomes of Vision 2030 Jamaica, however, government ministries, departments and agencies were mandated under the plan to align their strategic and operational plans and budgets with the priorities of each MTF approved by Cabinet. Corporate planners were also asked to alignment their plans with the MTF.

Also key was the alignment of the goals and outcomes of Vision 2030 Jamaica with the new templates for the Whole of Government Business Plan and Strategic Business Plan introduced by the Cabinet Office under the phased establishment of the Performance Monitoring and Evaluation System in the public sector.

The Vision 2030 Jamaica Secretariat, however, was provided with a revised budget of $21.9 million in 2014/2015 and has been provided with an approved budget of $32 million for 2015/2016 to cover staff costs, monitoring and evaluation, promotional events, stake holder consultations, publications and administrative expenses.

 By Everol Anderson