UNDP participants during the clean-up phase post Irma.
PHILIPSBURG–Projects being carried out by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in St. Maarten form part of the early recovery phase. UNDP has partnered with the St. Maarten Government and the Netherlands to support St. Maarten’s short-term recovery by focusing on three projects over the first six months of 2018.
With the recent establishment of its temporary office in St. Maarten, UNDP will be able to properly house its ground project team which is supported by the UNDP country office (UNDP CO) in Trinidad and Tobago.
Though a significant portion of the recovery funds for St. Maarten is being administered by a World Bank trust fund, seven million euros have been made available for early recovery in advance of the trust fund becoming operational.
This means that funding will be provided for projects launched after January 2018 and completed by July 2018 that have a direct impact on St Maarten’s population.
UNDP’s Quick Impact Projects recognised under the theme “Building Back Better St. Maarten” focus on community clean-up, fixing of community structures and roof repairs.
“Thus far we have been very actively working alongside [The Ministry of Public Housing, Spatial Planning, Environment and Infrastructure – Ed.] VROMI for the execution of our Cash for Work, Community Clean-up project. Our Cash for Work project gives persons who are unemployed or underemployed the opportunity to participate in community clean-up and be paid for their work.
“With assistance from VROMI, we are able to identify areas within all communities that still have a build-up of hurricane debris lying around. This can either be private yards or open spaces. Once locations are identified, VROMI selects contractors from their in-house listing to work at known sites. Contractors are then expected to use their current staff and hire additional for the execution of the clean-up of the site in which he/she has been assigned,” according to a statement by UNDP on Tuesday.
“Persons assigned to work with contractors are expected to work for a maximum of 20 days, after which staff will be rotated to ensure others who are also currently unemployed or underemployed have the opportunity to also engage in our Cash for Work project.
“To ensure widespread knowledge, execution and presence of our projects, UNDP recently began having short information sessions with various community groups and councils to inform them of our projects and ways in which they too can participate. During the upcoming weeks, UNDP seeks to engage in various media platforms to shed even more awareness of our presence on the island as well as our projects.
“UNDP believes resilience is built through a ‘building back better’ approach by ensuring development as part of the island’s recovery process. This is one of the early recovery projects financed from the Dutch Recovery Fund for St. Maarten, under the auspices of the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations,” stated the organisation.
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/74613-undp-wants-to-build-sxm-better
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