Grenada Prime Minister Identifies Areas To Be Developed In Building Institutional Capacity

ST. GEORGE’S, Grenada, September 4, 2019 (CMC) – Prime Minister, Dr. Keith Mitchell, has identified transformational leadership and human capital development as critical factors in achieving improved project implementation rates in Grenada and other Caribbean countries.

He told a Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) regional conference on Project Cycle Management, that there was a need to amplify efforts to build institutional capacity and bridge competency gaps in the public service.

“We must, therefore, focus on improving human and institutional capacity, efficiency and service delivery to revolutionise the way we work and conduct our business. It follows therefore, that there must be a radical shift in the culture of the public service across the region, to better support delivery of results and to drive performance.”

Mitchell, who is also Finance Minister, appealed for a new approach to avoid duplication in the future, noting “with many projects having cross-cutting functions, it is imperative that departments communicate with each other and avoid duplicating efforts.

“Development resources are scarce and we must streamline project implementation activities to create greater efficiency and to better-position ourselves to benefit from available funding and use it appropriately.”

Grenada has partnered with the CDB to host the conference, which ends later today and followed by a meeting of technical officers on Thursday and Friday.

Mitchell sought to underscore the importance of the events here, saying the rate of project implementation and delivery continues to be a fundamental problem facing Caribbean governments.

He also called on public sector leaders and managers to take ownership in the process of change as countries prepare for further growth and development.

“There is no disputing the fact that improved public sector implementation performance plays a vital role in transforming the economic growth and development of Grenada and other Caribbean countries,” he added.

CDB’s Vice President of Operations, Monica La Bennett, said project cycle management training has been an area of focus for the bank over the last two years, with the intention being to improve management, monitoring and implementation of policies, programmes and projects across the region.

She said that more than 2,000 civil servants in the CDB’s 19 borrowing member countries have benefitted from the training.

“CDB acknowledges that implementation of development projects is a major challenge across our region. Slow implementation hinders the delivery of tangible development results to our populations.

“Through this training program, the bank has been promoting the use of new frameworks and tools to facilitate innovative approaches to speedier project implementation,” she said, adding that it is the bank’s hope that its efforts will help to accelerate progress towards the attainment of development goals in all Caribbean countries.