KINGSTON, Jamaica – Six months after the passage of Hurricane Melissa, , hundreds of Small and Micro Enterprises (SMEs) are recovering their livelihoods and markets, while thousands of community residents are benefitting from restoration of commerce and paid debris clearance programmes, under the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) Jamaica Resilient Recovery Initiative (JARRI).
UNDP Assistant Resident Representative Lesley Ann Ennevor (right) supports Villette Neil, a poultry farmer who is blind, in receiving her gift of inputs to recover her poultry business resiliently. She is one of 125 SMEs who have so far received support under JARRI, in partnership with Jamaica 4H, Jamaica Network of Rural Women Producers and the Bureau of Gender Affairs.Fishers are reporting a significant reduction in post-harvest losses following installation of solar-powered container hubs at Galleon Beach and Parottee and a solar installation at Rio Nuevo.
Assistant UNDP Resident Representative, Lesley Ann Ennevor, said the first set of clean energy hubs is impacting more than 300 fishers and their families, indirectly benefiting 6500 persons from immediate and surrounding communities.
Ennevor, the UNDP Officer in Charge, said that by reliably powering cold storage, internet and charging stations, the solar hubs have helped fishers avoid distress sales and secure better prices, contributing to income stabilization and cost savings.
“Our partnership with the National Fisheries Authority of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining and local fishers, is strengthening fisher resilience and by extension food security, by providing a reliable, community-managed energy and storage solution that eliminates the need for diesel-powered refrigeration.
“UNDP is actively mobilizing to scale up this model clean energy solution to other fishing villages to help many more fishers withstand future shocks,” she added.
Ennevor said that UNDP is also partnering with the Jamaica Network of Rural Women Producers, Bureau of Gender Affairs and the Jamaica 4H to recover the livelihoods of 125 SMEs from impacted communities.
She said support for reconstruction and productive inputs such as feed, fertilizer, goods, equipment and other essentials is helping restore critical goods and services to impacted communities she reported.
“Beyond the provision of resilient inputs, UNDP and partners are also set to build SME capacity for business continuity and resilience through crisis,” she said, noting that one cohort of the SME outreach prioritizes enterprises run by women and persons with disabilities.
Ennevor says JARRI’s debris management programme has already cleared 890 tonnes of debris from two communities, benefiting 18 000 persons in Westmoreland, with six additional hurricane-impacted communities to go.
“Cleared in cooperation with residents under UNDP’s signature Cash for Work programme, dozens of residents who lost income in the wake of the hurricane can now address their immediate financial needs. Additionally, recycling is being included in select communities for the remainder of the debris programme”, she said.
Under its community component, JARRI aims to jumpstart the engine of community life, livelihoods and commerce, giving priority to SMEs in communities and key productive sectors. These include fishers, farmers, tourism operators, retail shops and services, with some resources allocated to recovery of enterprises run by women and persons with disabilities.
The UNDP is also supporting the Jamaica government develop a Master Spatial Plan for Black River to help reduce exposure to future hurricanes, flooding, and storm surge.
In addition, Ennevor said that the UNDP and partners will soon roll out recovery interventions for wetlands and forests, and innovative Technical Assistance Centres offering nuts and bolts guidance on fixing and building to resilient code.
Hurricane Melissa, the strongest-ever climate induced disaster to impact Jamaica in its modern history, made landfall on October 28 last year, causing the death of 45 persons and leaving damage estimated at US$9.9 billion.
