BNTF Guyana leading Caribbean in livelihood interventions
The Basic Needs Trust Fund programme in Guyana could soon be used as a blueprint for other Caribbean countries, on how to implement the livelihood intervention programme successfully.
Livelihood intervention includes community infrastructure, such as incubators and agro-processing facilities that generate income at the household level, thereby building the economic resilience of citizens.
Of the 10 Caribbean territories in the BNTF programme, Guyana is the only country that has embraced this component of it.
BNTF Project Manager Mr. Dikkedemma Utoh said 30 per cent of the sub-sector grant went into the livelihood intervention programme.
“We are progressing in the livelihood sub-sector. That was a challenging sub-sector for us at Basic Needs. It’s new to us. So, when we are completed and are successful, we will be an example to the rest of the Caribbean as to how we can successfully implement livelihood interventions,” he told DPI in a recent interview.
BNTF is facilitating several projects under the livelihood intervention programme. Included, is an agro-processing facility at the National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute (NAREI) and the Victoria fish processing facility. Bakery incubator and hollow block incubator programmes are also being executed through the Linden Enterprise Network (LEN) with both in the training phase.
The bakery incubator training of trainers programme was completed on Thursday at the Carnegie School of Home Economics. Nine persons from Linden participated in that training.
Meanwhile, within the education subsector, Mr. Utoh said BNTF is continuing with its early childhood centres and agro-processing facilities projects. The premier Early Childhood Centre of Excellence at the University of Guyana, Turkeyen Campus, is in its execution phase and is expected to be completed in December 2021.
Work is also expected to commence on two other early childhood centres in January, along with the Guyana School of Agriculture Essequibo campus’ agro-processing facility.
BNTF is a grant-funded initiative of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB). It Is one of the CDB’s key instruments for addressing poverty reduction by providing access for the poor and most vulnerable communities to essential public services through the provision of social and economic infrastructure and human resources development.