The Clarendon Parish Council’s Director of Planning, Nickala Thompson and Community Programmes Coordinator, Ramona Lawson were among a six-member Jamaican delegation which participated in the recently concluded Caribbean Urban Forum (CUF).
Ms. Lawson teamed up with Clive Edwards, Project Manager of the Local Government Reform Programme and Marsha Henry-Martin, Senior Director of Regional and Urban Planning in the Ministry of Local Government and Community Development to present a paper on ‘Achieving Sustainable Urban Development: An Integrated Framework of Local Governance and Local Economic Development’.
The paper addressed the extent to which local economic development (LED) has been devolved to local authorities in Jamaica and highlighted Clarendon as an example of how LED is being spearheaded successfully by a local authority.
According to Clive Edwards the Caribbean Urban Forum’s expansion into exploring local governance issues this year was very useful. This, he says, added ‘intellectual depth’ to the proceedings.
“The Clarendon Parish Council case study was particularly well presented’, he commented, adding that the Jamaican presentation was well-received based on the number of requests for copies of the paper.
The Jamaican delegation was very active in a number of sessions particularly those having to do with Regional Policy Dialogue.
The annual Caribbean Urban Forum facilitates the exchange of ideas as well as papers, experiences and policy implementation by a cadre of land use and land management professionals, academics and practitioners from across the region. The sixth CUF Conference was held in Paramaribo, Suriname between April 27 and 30.