Australian High Commission conducts Development Aid Programme outreach

Aug 10, 2016 News

Ms. Lucrecia Birch, Policy Officer, Australian High Commission, Trinidad and Tobago

The Australian High Commission in its bid to continue extending assistance in the Caribbean Region held an outreach exercise yesterday at the Foreign Service Institute of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The session was headed by Lucrecia Birch, Policy Officer of the Australian High Commission, Trinidad and Tobago, and a representative from the Ministry.
According to Birch, the Commission’s Development Aid Programme (DAP) has been funding projects since 2009. She said, “To date we have funded 16 plus projects and they span a range of areas from human rights to sanitation, education, women’s issues and health.”
The DAP is a flexible small grants programme which is aimed at promoting development in Caribbean countries which have been accredited under the Australia’s Official Development Assistance criteria.
Birch said that for this financial year – which began last July and culminates in June 2017 – focus will be placed on areas such as water and sanitation, community health, human rights and gender-related issues.
In addition, DAP projects are geared towards achieving practical and tangible outcomes such as poverty alleviation, small-scale infrastructure, rural development, environmental benefits including managing or adapting to climate change and ad hoc humanitarian relief.
Guyana is one of nine countries in the region which qualifies for these grants. Some of the remaining states are Belize, Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Suriname.
Birch explained that the DAP is centred on building communities. She informed the gathering that the grants are not for individual benefit. She encouraged cooperatives and groups to come together to generate some sort of sustainable economic activity for themselves.
Birch said that the programme does experience some challenges, particularly regarding persons completing applications. She said that despite the willingness of individuals to complete the forms, some are unable to do so, and this is revealed during the submission stages.
The grants have a limit of AUS$30,000. However, Birch said that persons are encouraged to apply for smaller grants. In addition, there is an upper ceiling of AUS$60,000 of funding which can be accessed, but only in certain cases. Such special cases include multi-country projects or a project which spans two financial years.
For the financial year 2013 to 2014, beneficiaries from the fund were the Guyana Community-Based Rehabilitation Programme and the Cancer Institute of Guyana. During 2014 to 2015 the Bina Hill Water Conservation Project and Rights of Children were beneficiaries.
In the last financial year which ended in June 2016, beneficiaries were Special Needs for Life, Women’s Refuge, Guyana Mangrove Reserve Producers’ Co-operative Society and the Cancer Institute of Guyana.

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