Two decades on and failing Sustainable development falling short

Claudia Gardner, Assignment Coordinator

WESTERN BUREAU:Municipal authorities in Western Jamaica have still not been able to complete their parish plans for sustainable development, in keeping with a pledge made at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janerio, Brazil, in 1992.

The conference, 'Rio Summit', resulted in the crafting of Agenda 21, a global consensus and political commitment on development and environment.

At the time, Jamaica and other countries pledged to ensure that by 1996, "most local authorities in each country would have undertaken a consultative process with their populations and achieved a consensus on a local Agenda 21" (sustainable parish development plans).

But 21 years later, most parish councils across the west say their individual parish plans are yet to be completed as they have been impacted by little or no funding.

"We are seeking money to do this thing," Mayor of Savanna-la-Mar and Chairman of the Westmoreland Parish Council Bertel Moore told Western Focus.

"The National Housing Trust (NHT) has promised to help in this regard, and so we are waiting on that. Funding is the main challenge. We are trying to approach the Sugar Transformation Unit for assistance; however, no consultation has been conducted with communities as yet."

There is no sustainable parish development plan in place for Trelawny. However, Mayor of Falmouth, Garth Wilkinson, said a development order for Falmouth has been in place since 1996.

"We have a parish development order that has been submitted to Parliament to be forwarded to the chief draftsman. It addresses how we develop Falmouth using the 50 acres of land to the south of the town," he said.

In late February 2010, the then Department of Local Government conducted islandwide consultations to kick-start the preparation of what it said were 20-year Local Sustainable Development Plans with the staging of one-day Visioning Symposia in parish capitals.

These were held in collaboration with the Planning Institute of Jamaica, the Social Development Commission (SDC), and the National Environment and Planning Agency.

At the time, then State Minister in the Department of Local Government, Robert Montague, said that the documents which were to have been drafted as a result of the visioning exercises would be key to the preparation of the Local Sustainable Development Plans and that strategies would later be used in supporting proposals for local, national, regional, and international funding.

plan 'in limbo'

But Deputy Mayor of Lucea and former Chairman of the Hanover Parish Council, Lloyd Hill, said the development plan for Hanover was now "in limbo". He said a $10 million sum promised by the National Housing Trust for preparation of the plan was still available, but that at least an additional $10 million was needed to finance the project.

"The situation is, nothing is happening here - not that we have forgotten - but because of the transitions and change of administration. An attempt was made at a consultation some years ago. We are trying to get the Parish Development Committee to come on-board to seek funds to engage some of the planners.

"SDC had made a proposal to do the plan and they get paid. When that was sent to the ministry, they said SDC should be a stakeholder participating, rather than being the entity to establish the plan. The point is to get the PDC to get involved and apply for funding. The PDC is not as active as it was a few years ago. They have to lead the process in terms of funds because council cannot get international funding. Donor agencies may not be willing to give funds to the local authorities," he said.

Mayor of Montego Bay and Chairman of the St James Parish Council Glendon Harris said the St James Development Plan, which was estimated to cost about $30 million, had made some progress.

"We are getting assistance from the Inter-American Development Bank under its Emerging Sustainable Cities initiative for a development plan for Montego Bay. So we are awaiting that process to deal with other aspects to do the planning and development order," Harris said.

"St James is a peculiar parish, and you cannot separate the rest of St James from Montego Bay, so we will have to do self-financing and perhaps partner with other agencies, including the Korean Embassy. It is not an easy process because of economic constraints. You will get barriers along the way," he added.