Organization of American States Caribbean Conference on Horizontal Cooperation in Social Protection Discussion Paper for Panel 3: Puente in the Caribbean III: Partners’ Perspectives and Future OAS Programming Scarlette Gillings, CD, Managing Director Jamaica Social Investment Fund

BACKGROUND & RATIONALE JSIF is one of the Government of Jamaica’s major poverty alleviation programmes Long association with the OAS and REDLAC Joined calls advocating for greater horizontal cooperation in poverty alleviation best practices

BACKGROUND & RATIONALE In 2003, JSIF hosted a regional workshop where the Puente Programme was showcased and strong calls made for replication in the Caribbean

BACKGROUND & RATIONALE JSIF’s mandate is to provide social and economic infrastructure in underserved communities. It addresses public poverty Commendable success in accessing financing from bilaterals and multilaterals to carry out poverty alleviation programmes

BACKGROUND & RATIONALE Fairly impressive record in tackling public poverty  350 schools  115 roads  21 health centres  44 water supply systems

BACKGROUND & RATIONALE Working at the community level has always been considered efficient and effective to help the poor Targeting households previously seen as time consuming and expensive. Concerns:  Leakage  Improper targeting  dependency

BACKGROUND & RATIONALE JSIF lessons learnt are strong launching pads for household level interventions:  Reduced community ownership of infrastructure projects  Less group/community involvement in the development process  Puente presented an excellent opportunity for JSIF to expand and complement poverty alleviation thrust by zeroing in on destitute households

BACKGROUND & RATIONALE Implementation of ICBSP in 12 urban and peri- urban inner city communities Assisting to improve physical and social environment Physical interventions  Roads, drains, sewage systems, street lighting, signage, multipurpose centres, green spaces Social interventions  Homework assistance and exam preparation, summer employment, skills training, parenting

IMPLEMENTATION EXPERIENCE JSIF hosted official launch of transference of Puente in the Caribbean in June 2007 Steady progress in implementing Puente

IMPLEMENTATION EXPERIENCE Human resource requirements  New skill sets, particularly psychosocial  Re-training staff  Institutional analysis of core tasks Modifications to Operations Manual Amendments to Fund Manager for monitoring and implementation requirements Orientation of political directorate Financing from World Bank

SUSTAINABILITY & IMPACT High prospects for sustainability  Gap filler for PATH and Steps To Work Shift towards well-needed household interventions Added dimension of psychosocial support Sanctioned by PIOJ Achievement of Vision 2030 objectives Attention from regional multilateral agencies Prospects for expansion to rural communities

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