Poverty & Social Development: A Caribbean Perspective

Tourism, Entertainment and Culture Minister, Aloun Ndombet-Assamba has informed that the government was collaborating with the Association of Caribbean States (ACS) on a project to develop and implement sustainability indicators for the Greater Caribbean.

"This involves the development of a methodology with common goals for measuring the impact of sustainable development. The indicators will allow public/private sector agencies to gauge and monitor the tourism sector's progress towards achieving sustainable development," Minister Assamba disclosed yesterday (June 28) as she made her contribution to 2006/2007 Sectoral Debate in the House of Representatives.

She indicated that the project, which is funded by the Foreign Commonwealth Office of the United Kingdom, seeks to identify, prioritise and assess pilot destinations in ACS member states that will become part of the Sustainable Tourism Zone of the Caribbean (STZC). Ocho Rios has been selected as the local site for the application of the sustainability indicators.

The Jamaican government's pursuit of the project represents part of its Tourism Master Plan. According to Mrs. Assamba, "the first pillar of the Master Plan speaks to sustainability of the tourism product."

The Convention establishing the STZC was signed by heads of state and governments of the ACS signed in 2001. It requires a practical and operational mechanism to gather individual sustainable tourism initiatives and best practices that are to be developed or implemented by the member countries.