PSOJ lobbies support for Project STAR
Private sector targets billions to transform human capital in under-resourced communities
Published:Thursday | June 15, 2023 | 1:22 AMAsha Wilks/Gleaner Writer
THE PRIVATE Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) is encouraging Jamaicans to support its Project STAR initiative that aims to transform the human capital of Jamaica.
Julian Mair, co-sponsor and public funding lead adviser of the project, stated that hopelessness has become a normal part of the lives of many Jamaicans and that has impacted their view of society and their overall social beliefs.
“That hopelessness is something that we need to break the back of,” said Mair, who also serves as chairman of the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE).
Mair was speaking yesterday at a press briefing held at the Office of the Commissioner of Police under the theme ‘Reversing Poor Social Outcomes in STAR communities: What the data reveals’.
Project STAR (Social Transformation and Renewal) is a social and economic transformation initiative established by the PSOJ in partnership with the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF). It aims to bring about societal transformation through targeted interventions in under-resourced areas of Jamaica.
Its operation began in 2022 and has been on the ground for the last seven months with the objective to intervene in various under-invested communities, including those in East Kingston; May Pen, Clarendon; and Savanna-la-Mar, Westmoreland.
The five-year programme is aimed at impacting 10 communities across Jamaica and will utilise mixed financing options to raise a total of $2 billion over the course of the programme. This method will combine the Jamaica Social Stock Exchange (JSSE) listing – targeting $650 million; corporate funding – targeting $400 million; diaspora crowdfunding – targeting $350 million; and multilateral funding – targeting $600 million.
Year one of the programme is being financed through corporate funding.
Mair stated that regarding the $250 million budget for year one of the project’s operations, approximately $150 million in commitments has been achieved so far. The rest of the proceeds – $100 million, will come from the launch of the project’s IPO social shares. Each shareholder will “own a piece of the success of the project”, he said, and will receive a quarterly report about the project.
The Project STAR shares will represent charity donations rather than tradeable shares. So, investors won’t be able to sell to one another on the exchange.
The social shares will be offered at $1 before month-end and the prospectus will become available this week.
The offer for investment will be made available by June 22 on the JSE and Project Star websites.
“The ambitious nature of this project is that we can make a difference in the trajectory of Jamaica by impacting the human capital,” said Mair.
The PSOJ assumes responsibility for designing interventions to establish safe spaces, support social development, and foster community relations and social cohesion. They also actively participate in each community transformation board and co-chair the oversight board with the JCF, taking the lead in implementing sustained interventions and gathering and reporting data.
Skills gap
Keith Duncan, co-chair of the oversight board and sponsor of Project STAR, stated that during his tenure as president of the PSOJ, it was realised that there were “binding constraints” in the labour markets of the private sector due to a skills gap that could not be brought in to deliver greater productivity and growth.
He further stated that factors such as crime, which cost the nation over $100 billion a year, poor education levels of individuals and the 6.6 per cent of the labour force which remained unemployed, negatively affected the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).
“Outside of the workforce, there are over 700, 000 people between the ages of 15 and 65 that have not made themselves eligible for the workforce. Of that number, over 200,000 are in school full-time or part-time ... it comes down to around 500,000 people,” he said.
Duncan stated that there needed to be a concentrated effort in driving change across the over 100 vulnerable and volatile communities the PSOJ has identified that are in need of support and intervention.
He said that the project had 52 indicators for change that will be monitored over time, some of which included social cohesion and inclusion – with the aim of impacting 30 per cent of the community and 1,950 individuals per community; to increase local economic developments – with the aim of impacting 20 per cent of the workforce population within these communities; and community-led action partnerships for development.
Police Commissioner, Major General Antony Anderson, who serves as co-chair of Project STAR, spoke to the importance and benefits of the police forging partnerships with the private sector, particularly the business sector.
“Businesses, interestingly enough, that had previously been targeted (by criminal elements), that has stopped happening. It was because ... the community came together,” he said.
Anderson continued that the police force recognised that investment in communities and the intervention in people’s lives in a positive way would result in better outcomes in troubled communities.