The European Union (EU) is providing funding for the Digital Response Connecting Citizens (DIRECCT) program aimed at strengthening the resilience of the health, education, and small business sectors in the Caribbean to cope with current and future crises.
Executive Director of the Trinidad-based Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), Dr. Joy St. John, said the Caribbean region will benefit from this program through strengthened health information systems and increased capacity for early detection, response, monitoring, and reporting of public health threats and emerging diseases.
The Improving Digital Integrated Public Health Surveillance in the Caribbean initiative aims to increase capacity for real-time access of Caribbean ministries of health to public health surveillance data from a variety of sources using a digital integrated information platform.
CARPHA’s 26 member states, many of which depend on tourism, will use this digital system to inform early and appropriate interventions to track and mitigate disease spread, and act as an evidence base for policymakers to address local environmental and social determinants of health.
Executive Director of the Barbados-based Caribbean Export Development Agency, Deodat Maharaj, welcomed the cooperation with Expertise France and praised the conception and design of the Virtual eCommerce Accelerator Program (VEAP) that the agency will be implementing.
Maharaj affirmed the agency’s commitment to working with relevant stakeholders to ultimately help Caribbean businesses and entrepreneurs take advantage of digital technologies to build their resilience and sustainability.
“Under the rubric of the Virtual Ecommerce Accelerator Program, we will engage Caribbean firms, Business Supports Organizations (BSOs) and e-commerce related private sector firms, such as website developers over six months, utilizing a learning by doing approach aimed at enhancing their knowledge of e-commerce and implementation of e-commerce strategies.”
The accelerator will include a maximum of two BSOs in each country with five firms assigned to each BSO for support across the 15 CARIFORUM countries. These BSOs and firms will be supervised by a team of master trainers and coaches in the areas of e-commerce website development, product development, marketing, analytics, and general e-commerce operations.
The program is being held in consultation with the Organization of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS), and at a news conference coordinated by the Agence Française de Development (AFD), the funding and implementing partners acknowledged the challenges to global and regional human development presented by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The responsibility to implement the Euro 15.4 million (One Euro=US$1.29 cents) program is that of AFD and Enabel, the Belgian development agency.
“The ACP-DIRECCT program is fully in line with AFD’s digital strategy,” said Philippe La Cognata, Regional Director in the Atlantic Ocean of the French Development Agency, adding that the digital transition is one of the six priority transitions of AFD’s Strategic Orientation Plan.
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