Per Engebak (left), UNICEF regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean, and Prime Minister P. J. Patterson sign a US$10 million agreement to fund a five-year programme geared at assisting the development of Jamaican children and adolescents.- Rudolph Brown /Staff Photographer
LOCAL YOUTH dev-elopment got a boost yesterday after a US$10 million agreement to fund a five-year child and adolescent development programme was signed between the Government of Jamaica (GoJ) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).
The signing between Prime Minister P.J. Patterson and Per Engebak, UNICEF regional representative for Latin America and the Caribbean, sanctioned the master plan of operations GoJ/UNICEF Country Programme of Co-operation 2002-2006.
The five-year plan, according to Prime Minister Patterson, will focus on three areas of youth development Early Childhood development; Adolescent Devel-opment and Participation; Policy, Advocacy and Special Care and Protection Measures.
"As a government, we have taken seriously our responsibility to our children," said Mr. Patterson. "This is in accordance with the 1990 World Declaration on the Survival, Protection and Development of the Child as well as the 1991 Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Jamaica was an early signatory," he said.
He explained that the Early Childhood Development Initia-tive would ensure that children up to age eight had access to quality pre-natal and early childhood services. Under the Adolescent Development and Participation Programme adolescents aged 9-18 would be supported via a participatory environment while the Policy, Advocacy, Special Care and Protection measures would strengthen the capacity for child rights promotion and protection.
Mr. Engebak commended the highly participatory and comprehensive process followed by Jamaica and said it demonstrated Jamaica's commitment to the promotion and protection of children's rights. Mr Engebak also pointed out several differences between the previous co-operation agreement between Jamaica and UNICEF.
He noted that a strategy for HIV/AIDS has been introduced and would focus on promoting, preventing and mitigating the impact of the epidemic on children and their families.
He said of the approved US$10 million budget for the five-year period US$10 million would be sought from donor countries and UNICEF has already received commitments amounting to 56 per cent of the projected amount from donors such as CIDA, USAID, the Government of the Netherlands and the UNICEF National Com-mittees of Canada and the Netherlands.
Although the programme is being spearheaded by the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) several other government and non-governmental organisations will be involved including the Ministries of Health, Education, Youth and Culture, Local Government and Community Development, the University of the West Indies, the Caribbean Child Develop-ment Centre and the National Aids Committee and the Coalition for Better Parenting.
