$16.9 million that's how much money the European Union will be investing to get some village life. On November 1st of 2005 Belize and the EU signed onto a grant which will finance rural development projects as a part of a poverty alleviation strategy. Today the project was officially launched in Double Head Cabbage. We found out how it will work.
Alfonso Noble Reporting,
This morning the fire hearth was prepared and the boil-up pot was ready to bubble. And in the auspicious presence of country cooking. This is where the Belize Rural Development Programme a $16.6 million project was launched. The program is specifically designed to improve income generating capacity and standard of living for 60 of the 192 villages in Belize. Dr. Marcelino Avila is the technical director of the programme.
Dr. Marcelino Avila, Technical director - BRDP
"The objective of BRDP is to try to enhance the income and employment options for the rural people of Belize and in particular the rural poor. We want to invest in the development of small enterprises or micro-enterprises that could be in the area of agriculture or in tourism, small industries or any activity that can generate income or employment. We are going to real move into about sixty of them which are the least developed ones which are important for the development of our program. One important that is very important in how we develop our program is that in each district we have a DDC and this is integrated by specialists in the different departments of government that deal with the rural sector, with farmers or producers organizations or market or credit agencies who really have an interest in rural development in rural development and they are the ones who mainly will identify what the development priorities are."
Avila says that this focus on rural development has become a national development priority. With EU funding, it will cover three main areas.
Dr. Marcelino Avila,
"One of them is to develop capacity for the implementation of enterprises, the development of enterprises and therefore we want to make sure that the rural people know what the options are and how they can access information, technology, and so forth so that they can be successful with their enterprises. Secondly we also want to invest in small infrastructure and equipment. Thirdly also we have to strengthen some rural institutions that should be providing services to the development of these enterprises in these communities.
The rural population represents 52% of the population of Belize and there are a number of villages especially the remote ones that are staying behind and we really need to integrate into the national economic development of the country. Secondly if we don't develop the rural areas with appropriate infrastructure, economic activities and opportunities for the rural people, they all will come to the city or urban areas and therefore we will have more problems there to deal with. And thirdly I think that if we are really interested in developing the rural areas, which we should be, then we need to invest in the productive activities."
Project coordinator for the Belize District is Andre Harrison. He explains that those activities will vary from one community to the other depending on the capacity and needs of each.
Andre Harrison, Project Coordinator - Belize District
"In the Belize District we'll be looking at the rural communities, first of all it is for the rural communities. And then we will be looking at the groups or at the community itself to see how we can assist them to develop small or medium enterprises so they can have a way to generate income or employment. The program is not aimed only agriculture, it is open. It is open to the tourism sector, it is open to the arts and craft, and again agriculture and any way possible that we can assist the community to generate income."
That income generation capacity will come through approximately two point five million dollars allocated to each district. It's quite the endeavor and Avila says there will be close monitoring of the programs.
Dr. Marcelino Avila,
"We will measure our progress of the projects that we will be investing by looking at income and employment and how we increase that by looking at how we improve the families, the households, the villages, and also in terms of the specific enterprise sectors we are investing in."
And the hope is that wealth distribution will come to those in rural communities like Double Head Cabbage where fire hearth here is more than just a restaurant name, it's a way of life.
After today's launching, a workshop was held with the women and Youths in Double Head Cabbage to assist them in preparing a funding request to BPRD for development of small to medium enterprises.
