Honourable Guy Joseph, Minister for Economic Development, Housing, Urban Renewal, Transport and Civil Aviation launched Saint Lucia’s Social and Economic Labs.

The lab methodology is a new approach which the government is undertaking to develop and deliver on the Medium Term Development Strategy (MTDS) for 2019-2022, with the aim to achieve an inclusive and sustainable Saint Lucia by 2022. This project is supported by the Caribbean Development Bank through a Technical Assistance Loan to the Government of Saint Lucia.

The process began in April 2018, when Saint Lucia’s Cabinet and senior officials from the public service, together with representatives from the private sector, prioritised six (6) Key Results Areas (KRAs) to focus on. The six KRAs comprise three (3) Economic KRAs, which are Tourism, Agriculture and Infrastructure, and three (3) Social KRAs, which are Healthcare, Education and Crime. Collectively, these sectors represent some of the most important areas that impact the lives of every Saint Lucian. The Department of Economic Development, Transport and Civil Aviation is the lead sponsor for the labs, and the Government of Saint Lucia is fully committed to the labs.

Phase 1 of this process is the lab phase, which will take place from 19 November to 14 December. During this phase, the labs will identify issues and opportunities, prioritise solutions and develop detailed implementation plans for execution over the next four years. The labs will involve participation of all key stakeholders from the public and private sectors, and the output of the labs will be detailed implementation programmes as well as budget requirements to run the projects and initiatives identified, in order to achieve the aims of the Medium Term Development Strategy (MTDS) 2019-2022.

After the completion of Phase 1, i.e. the lab phase, Phase 2 will commence in January 2019 and will involve the establishment of a Delivery Unit within the Government of Saint Lucia. This unit’s role will be to oversee, coordinate and drive implementation of the plans developed within the labs leading delivery of the prioritized goals across all six KRAs. Ultimately, the Delivery Unit’s mandate will be to manage performance and drive accountability as well as to support implementing ministries and agencies in delivering concrete results that improve the lives of our citizens.

To assist in successful delivery of this new methodology, the Government will be working closely with two leading international consultancies, which are Delivery Associates and PEMANDU Associates. These two firms have worked with Governments around the world to improve their effectiveness at delivering real, measurable outcomes for their citizens. The Government of Saint Lucia is excited to partner with them over the next 15 months.

As part of the labs, the Government of Saint Lucia is putting out a call for projects under the Economic Key Results Areas of Tourism and Agriculture. The project areas under the Tourism KRA are international hotel brands interested in investing in Saint Lucia, cruise operators looking to make Saint Lucia a home port, Health and Wellness Tourism, Village Tourism and Eco Tourism. The project areas under the Agriculture KRA are production of foods as a means of import substitution, food processing projects, production of high value, high yield crops that encourage crop diversification and production of staple crops.

Interested companies may obtain a form to submit their interest via the notice for the call for projects on the Government of Saint Lucia website (http://www.govt.lc/notices). Interested parties should submit the filled forms to economicdevelopment@govt.lc by Friday, 9th November 2018.