The activity is a model for engaging stakeholders and validating national efforts.
Castries, Saint Lucia. May 29, 2018 (IICA). The 2017 Accountability Seminar was held at the Orchid Garden, Union in the presence of officials from Ministry of Agriculture, Members of the Diplomatic Core and stakeholders.
Addressing partners, stakeholders and beneficiaries, the IICA’s Delegate in St. Lucia, Dr. John King, shaped the context for the Accountability Seminar around the gains realized in the agricultural sector in 2016 as the motivation for continued collaboration. He then highlighted the value of collaboration with partners to IICA’s work in St Lucia to advance agricultural and rural well-being. He also noted that IICA’s celebration of its 75th anniversary warranted introspection and open evaluation by beneficiaries in validating and providing critique on the work of the Institute in ensuring that contributions generate the type of results and technical products and services of relevance and value. This, he said, was the rationale for IICA’s work in Saint Lucia.
Meanwhile, John Calixte,, Permanent Secretary (PS) of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Physical Planning, Natural Resources and Cooperatives, representing the Minister, the Honourable Ezechiel Joseph, highlighted that specific credit was given to IICA in light of its work in supporting the restructuring of the St Lucia Marketing Board and the St Lucia Fish Marketing Corporation, implementation support on two greenhouses financed by the Mexican Embassy, collaboration on capacity building initiatives nationally and extra-nationally, as well as a number of other technical cooperation. Specific mention was also made of the more recent cooperation on facilitating capacity building and technical networking avenues for the Ministry of Agriculture and its staff. The PS in his remarks also complimented the work of the Delegation in strengthening national systems/frameworks (such as the Farmer Certification Framework developed in 2017 for improving standards adoption for market access and participation). PS Calixte emphasized the value of this level of technical cooperation as one of the most distinguishing aspects of the Institute as a partner.
The presentation of the 2017 work programme by Brent Theophile, National Specialist of the IICA’s Delegation in Saint Lucia, was well received. Participants at the Accountability Seminar noted the participatory processes in IICA’s implementation approach as well as the efficacy of the same in providing technical cooperation services. Specific notice was taken on the work with women and youth in supporting entrepreneurship and enterprise development. These activities accounted for a major part of the work that the Delegation did in capacity building (with focus on learning by doing approaches) as well as in improving market access and participation opportunities for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs).
