PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad– The European Union (EU) provides funding for the DIgital REsponse Connecting CiTizens (DIRECT) program to strengthen the resilience of health and education and small business sectors in the Caribbean to cope with current and future crises.
Executive Director of the Trinidad-based Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), Dr. Joy St. John, said the Caribbean region would benefit from this program through strengthened health information systems and increased capacity for early detection, response, monitoring, and reporting of public health threats and emerging diseases.
The Improving Digital Integrated Public Health Surveillance in the Caribbean initiative aims to increase capacity for real-time access of Caribbean ministries of health to public health surveillance data from various sources using a digitally integrated information platform.
CARPHA’s 26 member states, many of which depend on tourism, will use this digital system to inform early and appropriate interventions to track and mitigate disease spread and act as an evidence base for policy-makers to address local environmental and social determinants of health.
Executive Director of the Barbados-based Caribbean Export Development Agency,
Deodat Maharaj welcomed the cooperation with Expertise France and praised the conception and design of the Virtual eCommerce Accelerator Programme (VEAP) that the agency will be implementing.
Maharaj affirmed the agency’s commitment to working with relevant stakeholders to help Caribbean businesses and entrepreneurs take advantage of digital technologies to build their resilience and sustainability.
“Under the rubric of the Virtual Ecommerce Accelerator Programme, we will engage Caribbean firms, Business Supports Organisations (BSOs), and eCommerce related private sector firms, such as website developers and drops shipment partners over of six -a months period, utilizing a learning by making approach aimed at enhancing their knowledge of eCommerce and implementation of eCommerce strategies.”
The accelerator will include a maximum of two BSOs in each country, with five firms assigned to each BSO for support across the 15 CARIFORUM countries. These BSOs and firms will be supervised by a team of Master trainers and coaches in eCommerce website development, product development, marketing, analytics, and general eCommerce operations.
The program is being held in consultation with the Organisation of African, Caribbean, and Pacific States (OACPS). At a news conference coordinated by the Agence Française de Développement (AFD), the funding and implementing partners acknowledged global and regional human development challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic.
They highlighted the critical role of digital services in allowing people to stay connected with their public health partners, educational institutions, and important businesses.
OACPS Secretary-General, Georges Rebelo Pinto Chikoti, said that “through this timely collaboration, we will finance ten projects which will benefit more than 50 states throughout the OACPS in the areas of health, education, and small businesses.
“By prioritizing the needs of NGOs and reducing gender inequality which is still very present in the digital world, we can transform this COVID-19 crisis into an opportunity to develop our countries.”
There was an acknowledgment that the availability of digital services mitigated the impact of the pandemic on citizens, patients, students, and businesses in the region. In future crises, the ability to stay connected with institutions and partners will be an essential and effective response that has been severely tested in the last two years.
“The EU has set a new ambition: to support and increase access to digital services and tools in developing countries,” said Luís Maia, the head of Cooperation of the Delegation of the European Union to Barbados, the Eastern Caribbean States, the OECS and CARICOM / CARIFORUM
“Digital transformation and innovation are key priorities in the EU’s engagement with the Caribbean. The EU plans to step up its digital engagement with Latin America and the Caribbean through a Digital Alliance. The aim is to combine both regions’ interests, strengths, and capacities, to jointly address the digital divide and achieve inclusive digital transformation.”
The responsibility to implement the Euro 15.4 million (One Euro=US$1.29 cent) program is that of AFD and Enable, the Belgian development agency.
“The ACP-DIRECT program is fully in line with AFD’s digital strategy,” said Philippe La Cognata, Regional Director in the Atlantic Ocean of the French Development Agency, adding that the digital transition is one of the six priority transitions of AFD’s Strategic Orientation Plan.
“We will use digital technology as a lever to accelerate the achievement of the SDGs. AFD is thus positioning itself as a digital donor to become a reference partner for developing countries to accelerate their digital transition for sustainable development.”
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