Knowledge Products and Information, Education & Communication Material

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Participatory Guarantee System

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Aqua Entrepreneurship Initiative

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FIRMs

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Multi Stakholder Platform

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Business and Technical Capacity Development

Building resilience of the agricultural sector against the effects of meteorological variations includes building the resilience of small businesses along the value chains which use the produce from agricultural production.  Through the Business Capacity Development measure, two women-only local agro-processing groups which process local produce for the local and national market, benefitted from theoretical lectures and hands-on exercises on crucial business aspects (costs, revenues, new product ideas, design, marketing and the management of their business) so they could apply the knowledge gained to improve the quality of their decision making.  The core topics addressed during the training were:  Entrepreneurship Essentials, Introduction to Marketing; Basic Book-Keeping Principles; Essential Costing Practices; Office Administration, financial education, business management and investment-driven market expansion and borrowing.

Both groups acknowledged that they did need to improve their operations to achieve business success as their ability to improve sales relies on their being able to overcome hindrances in their daily operations. The capacity building exercise was therefore an opportunity for them to gain skills to help overcome these challenges.   

While these activities assisted the partners in facing, in a practical manner, technical and implementation challenges they would face in their operations there is also need for training in interpersonal engagement eg. Effective communication, conflict resolution, management and other soft skills critical for effectively managing the interpersonal components of business management. 

Youth Engagement

Educational and knowledge exchange programs were used to promote awareness of the importance of effectively managing ecosystems.  By focussing on the younger generation, the Programme sought to incorporate sustainability into its impacts as these youth would be the decisionmakers of the future. Further, there is the observation that children tend to share whatever they have learned with their parents. Thus, it is seen as an opportunity to reach the wider community with information.  Several approaches were executed.  In 2017, the Programme supported the Soufriere Scotts Head Marine Reserve (SSMR) Day in Dominica, a major collaborative effort between local authorities and the CATS programme.  500 primary school students and 81 teachers from 33 primary schools participated in activities that promote the understanding of the ridge to reef concept.  There was also adoption of the Soufriere Primary School as a Reef Guardian School.  This initiative served the dual purpose of educating and raising awareness of students and by extension, their parents, of the ridge to reef concept, and also making teachers more aware of these, so they could better instruct their students.  Also, in Soufriere Saint Lucia, three schools benefitted from support for the establishment of low chemical garden plots to produce food for the School Feeding Programmes embarked on these schools. The garden establishment also involved active participation of the children in the gardening process and revenue generation by the school through sale of excess produce.  This also realised development of management guidelines to be used by the schools for managing their existing plots as well as implementing similar. 

There is increased awareness of the importance of ensuring that the younger generation are fed good quality food.  This in addition to the need for easy access to good quality food secured the buy in needed for the execution of the school food production projects in St. Lucia.  In the case of Dominica, the SSMR Day event was already an initiative implemented by the Fisheries Division for years and thus there was already an appetite in the society for it.  The Reef Guardian programme could be considered an offshoot stimulated by the aforementioned SSMR Day. 

In engaging schools it is critical to incorporate parental support.  This not only is in an effort to ensure their consent, but also to create opportunities for parents to have a better understanding of the information being shared with their children, granted, these concepts are important for societal wellbeing.  They could also provide support for implementation even after the project would have ended.  It was also critical to obtain buy in from the school administrations which would have to put all conditions in place to support the establishment of the initiatives, but also the continuity of the same.

Resilience in marine communities

To assist in disaster vulnerability reduction, the CATS programme assisted in the construction of a berthing jetty in the remote community of Soufriere, Dominica.  Considered the most economically viable option, the jetty can provide for quick unimpeded access for goods for the community and an escape route for times of emergencies.  This infrastructure reduces the emergency response time between Soufriere/Scotts Head communities and Roseau by nearly half.  At the same time, the construction of such a facility is expected to create and expand new and hopefully sustained economic opportunities for the Local Area Management Authority (LAMA) and the local communities. 

The need for this intervention was highlighted by the passage of multiple natural disasters, which significantly inhibited the access of the Soufriere community to goods and services from outside the immediate community, especially due to there being a compromised road network.  The jetty was therefore a welcomed opportunity to overcome this challenge. The benefits to the commercial sector, fisher access   and improved standard of living were other motivating factors which created the enabling environment for this intervention. 

Being a multi-partner, community focussed initiative, it was noted that before such a project commenced, it was necessary to have a meeting between the project team and beneficiaries (not just leaders) to clarify everything in detail-a meeting that would bring everyone together before the project starts, and not just the leaders, is a good way to achieve this.  The management of the facility post completion is a critical factor, and one to be considered and incorporated in facility design at an early stage, lest long term maintenance becomes a challenge once the partners take over.  Also the engagement with a locally assigned engineer and a local construction team help secure community buy-in and support and speed up processes and approvals from local authorities.