by Kevon Browne
St. Kitts and Nevis (WINN) – US$49,970 from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Small Grants Programme (SGP) will help fund the Youth Capacity Building Small Grants Project on Youth in Sustainable Development and initiative from the Department of Youth Empowerment.
The Initiative will seek to increase the practical skills of young people in designing, implementing, and monitoring interventions relevant to the social, economic, and sustainable development of youth and their communities.
“… there is a significant gap in the capacity of our local organizations in developing and implementing successful projects in the community and across the country… [the project] is a partnership to help to address and fill in those gaps and position our youth organizations to one; strengthen themselves and two; identify issues in the communities that they could address, and three; to be able to mobilize resources towards addressing these challenges,” said Pierre Liburd, Director in the Department of Youth Empowerment, on the June 09 broadcast of “Working for You.”
Youth organizations across St. Kitts and Nevis will engage in a month-long initiative designed to identify their strengths and weaknesses and help them address and build internal structures, governance and accountability mechanisms and policies to help develop an appreciation for community assets.
Liburd said, “It is also designed to help them look at challenges in their societies… communities, and devise creative ways to address those challenges through sustainable projects, all of which they would identify and develop on their own and ultimately receive financial support or backing towards implementing it.”
The groups involved in the training should emerge as more cohesive and sustainable organizations with the necessary infrastructure, tools, and systems to ensure continuity and growth.
That is the intention of this programme according to Liburd.
