Visit to Jamaica: Reception

Honourable Ministers,
Excellencies,
Distinguished partners and friends

Wah Gwaan! 

I am very happy to visit beautiful Jamaica for the first time in my capacity as Goodwill Ambassador to UNDP.

I would like to thank the Government and the people of Jamaica for your gracious hospitality and warm welcome. My delegation and I already feel very much at home.

Tonight, we meet here in Kingston at a time in history when we are facing grave challenges. We all know them just too well: Poverty, climate change and nature loss being some of the most severe. We know that we are not likely to fulfil the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 if we continue at our current pace.

Still, being here with you, a group of people with purpose and dedication to tackle these challenges in the most constructive way, fills me with hope.

So friends, let us focus on hope.

Today, I visited Rocky Point Fishing Village and the Victoria Community along with members of the Jamaican government. I had the privilege of talking to fishermen, members of the community, and the Jamaica military and Coast Guard. This experience increased my understanding of their important role in providing seafood to the nation and protecting life under water. 

I am particularly inspired by Jamaica’s leadership in encouraging the region to join the Norwegian funded and initiated Blue Justice initiative and being the host of the Blue Justice Caribbean Hub. This will serve as a focal point for coordinated activities against fisheries crime throughout the Caribbean region.

UNDP supports Jamaica with both national and regional activities through the Blue resilience project, in cooperation with the Blue Justice Secretariat at the Norwegian Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries. For example, in 2022, the Jamaican Government establishment a Jamaican Multi-Agency – which was supported by UNDP. These network arrangements including supporting digital innovations are underscoring the importance of regional collaboration in advancing SDG14, which aims to protect life under water.

The UNDP Multi-Country Office occupies an important niche in the local development landscape, focusing on multidimensional approaches to poverty and crisis resilience. Anchored in one of our core mottos – Leaving No One Behind – UNDP ensures that the ‘invisible’ silent majority, including persons with disabilities, youth, women, and rural communities, are included.

For close to 50 years the Government of Jamaica has cooperated with UNDP, with civil society and donors for the purpose of building a more resilient, inclusive, and sustainable future.

Significant results have emerged from this partnership, including:

Bolstering regulatory frameworks for climate resilience such as the establishment of Jamaica’s Climate Change Division; Water security for more than 40 drought plagued communities impacting farming yields, business operations and potable water supplies;

And, like we have experienced and learned more about today: Strengthening the response to fisheries crime, saving the livelihoods of fishers – and helping to secure national food support.

Today I met with Cecilia Harvey and LeTroy Morgan who are both engaged in fishing, as their job. And they were very proud of showing the tracking device and the radio that they are equipming the boats with. That way the boats can be tracked, and they were able also to communicate back to land, so that if they did see any activity that looked like it was illegal and irregular it was possible to take action.

What I liked really much, was that they took ownership to it and wanted more of this equipment, and they thought that the project was very much in their interest - and thats off course the key for making these projects work. The beautiful side effect of this was that if you have this equipment and you have problems at sea, you are able to communicate back, and a search and rescue operation could be initiated. 

This shows that multilateral, bilateral, private sector, and civil society partnerships are key to success.

Distinguished guests,
Friends,

I take this opportunity to thank the government, community, and donor partners for their continued support and for investing in the strategic vision for a resilient Jamaica in which everyone matters.

At this inflection point in our world’s history, Jamaica brings a message of hope that we must fight poverty, climate change, nature loss and degradation by involving vulnerable groups traditionally left behind.

I invite you all in a toast to Jamaica – land of innovators. Jamaica, land of beauty. And Jamaica, land we love – even for those of us who are just visiting.

Thank you.