Trinidad and Tobago, United Nations partner on development plans towards 2026

In keeping with the national developmental strategy – Vision 2030 – the Planning and Development Ministry has partnered with the UN on the multi-country development co-operation framework (MSDCF).

Planning and Development Minister Pennelope Beckles, in a release, said all stakeholders convened on August 23, for the first 2023 meeting of the joint national steering committee (JNSSC) of the MSDCF.

The co-operation framework has a five-year timeline (2022-2026) and seeks to connect the UN’s sustainable development goals (SDGs) with TT’s national development strategies, through a country implementation plan (CIP).

In her address, Beckles said TT has benefited from a number initiatives under the MSDF and CIP.

This includes photovoltaic installations at 12 sites across the country, assessment of supply-chain digitisation, farm certification, implementation of a logistics management information system for medicine supply chains and technology upgrade at Piarco Airport to detect and intercept drugs.

Under this framework, TT is also modernising its statistical ecosystem through enhanced SDG data development.

One of the key outputs of this project will be an interactive SDG digital data repository platform that will bring together data from various datasets, portals and sectors to one common place.

This will empower the government to track progress towards achieving the SDGs, the release said.

“The initiative will aim to create a single, unified, technology-driven tool, to amalgamate sub-national data, in order to act as a guide for all development initiatives in the country,” Beckles said.

UN resident co-ordinator Joanna Kazana in her address also underscored the importance of working with the government to achieve the joint developmental goals.

“The role of the UN is not to lead development efforts, but rather to assist TT in achieving its own plans and targets,” Kazana said.