| Plans for Staging
Jamaican Diaspora Conference Gains Momentum
The Embassy of Jamaica in Washington has heightened preparatory
activities in support of the upcoming Conference on the Jamaican
Diaspora, in an effort to engender even greater interest from an
already engaged Jamaican community across the United States.
The Embassy's efforts to actively publicize the conference, which
began in early 2004, has been met with enthusiasm not only from
established Jamaican organizations and philanthropic groups which
support charitable causes in Jamaica, but also from individual Jamaican
nationals desiring to play a more meaningful role in the country's
economic and social development.
The Conference, which is being held under the theme: "Unleashing
the Potential of the Diaspora" will be staged at the Jamaica
Conference Centre from June 16 to 17, and will involve hundreds
of participants representing several Jamaican organizations drawn
from communities in the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States.
Other professionals and business interests, both from abroad as
well as in Jamaica, will also be in attendance.
In an effort to further acquaint the Jamaican community in Washington
with the key themes and objectives of the Diaspora conference, the
Chargé d'Affaires of the Embassy of Jamaica, Courtenay Rattray,
and other staffers, met recently with the leadership of the major
community organizations in the metropolitan area and participated
in a consultative forum designed to solicit input from the Diaspora,
which will aid in shaping the conference's agenda.
The interaction was primarily to familiarize participants with
the draft agenda of the conference and to invite the community to
provide its own perspective on how the discussions at the forum
could serve to encourage even greater levels of support from Jamaicans
abroad and more concretely invest them in the process of nation
building.
Subsequent to this interaction, the Embassy has expanded its outreach
to individual community organizations in Washington, as well as
in other cities across the United States, in directly contacting
membership in these groups and soliciting their interest in and
support for the conference.
This, in turn, has led to several new enquiries since last week
from private individuals as well as organizations who have expressed
their desire to attend the forum.
In an interview with JIS News, the Jamaican Chargé d'Affaires
in Washington noted that the conference represented "an initial
attempt by the Government of Jamaica to reach out to our Diaspora
community, not only here in the United States, but also in the United
Kingdom, and Canada as well. Our goal is to incorporate them into
the government's national development agenda and we are trying to
determine a feasible mechanism through which their contribution
towards national development can be facilitated."
Mr. Rattray mentioned that the conference would also attempt to
harmonize several initiatives currently being undertaken by groups
in the three countries and to provide a structure that would aid
the delivery of assistance, which was being rendered.
"As you know, many of our citizens abroad have consistently
lent their skills and capital (in) various areas, such as health
and education. The problem, however, is that these efforts have
been largely executed on an ad hoc basis. This is an attempt by
government to apprise our nationals overseas of the policy objectives
of the government and to create a framework within which the assistance
that they provide, on a voluntary basis, can be rendered in a manner
that is more consistent with the government's approach and therefore
yield greater efficiencies to the nation," he said.
Turning to ongoing efforts to publicize the forum, Mr. Rattray
informed that "the Embassy of Jamaica, in conjunction with
Jamaican consulates both in Miami and New York, would be reaching
out not only to community groups and associations of Jamaican nationals
in cities across the United States, but we're also targeting representatives
of alumni associations, student groups, religious and cultural associations,
as well as businesses, chambers of commerce, and entrepreneurial
and professional personalities."
"In addition, we have communicated with the principals of
all these organizations and have held consultations with small groups
within the Jamaican community where we have taken their questions
and provided an outline of what is expected. We have also involved
them in determining the structure of the agenda and have solicited
their input in fashioning an agenda that will yield the output that
we want to achieve," he emphasized.
Members of the community organizations present at the recent consultations
were also optimistic about the Conference's overall prospects and
its ability to provide a forum for meaningful dialogue between Jamaicans
living overseas, the Jamaican government and private sector, as
well as civil society.
Jacqueline Payne, President of the Jamaica Nationals Association
(JNA) in Washington, commended the Jamaican government for staging
the meeting, noting that its convening was both "opportune
and necessary." She observed that the rationale for the conference
was further underscored by "the increasing need for small developing
countries like Jamaica to bring to bear the expertise of those in
the overseas community to respond to the challenges brought about
by globalization.
Ms. Payne said that the establishment of public-private relationships
was an important component in rationalizing assistance programmes
and ensuring that the support went where it was intended. "Since
last year, JNA's new emphasis on doing our part to combat the spread
of HIV AIDS in Jamaica has been greatly assisted by the increasingly
close collaboration that we have forged with the Embassy of Jamaica
and the Jamaican government. This cooperation will allow us to target
our efforts and resources in specific areas and thus respond to
urgent and specific needs," she said.
President of the Jamaica Progressive League (JPL) in Washington,
Hugh Thomas, also indicated that the membership of his organization
was equally enthused about participating in a conference that would
seek to solicit ideas from the Jamaican Diaspora, which would constitute
a joint approach to advancing the nation's development agenda.
"Generally speaking, the Jamaican community abroad has largely
functioned as onlookers rather than direct participants. While the
discussion has focused on several topical areas, such as whether
or not Jamaicans living overseas should be allowed to vote, there
has really not been a strategy that would allow us, in an organized
way, to marry our collective resources and to approach the question
of development from a common perspective," he said.
Mr. Thomas asserted that while the conference should contemplate
new approaches to involving the overseas community, there was still
merit in considering initiatives which were being pursued by some
Jamaican organizations in the US, such as building on or expanding
skills banks or databases of Jamaican professionals which could
then be tapped by the Jamaican government, as well as the private
sector, for needed expertise in specific sectors or in relation
to particular projects being administered or funded by international
financial entities.
"With this approach we will be taking advantage of the wealth
of experience and talent that can be accessed and utilized in our
own overseas community," Mr. Thomas said.
The JPL president also announced that his group would be increasing
outreach to nationals in the Washington metropolitan area and would
collaborate with like organizations, at the community level, to
ensure strong representation at the conference from the Jamaican
community in Washington.
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