Resource mobilisation challenging for CDF

Dr. Alison Plummer as she gave remarks in the capacity
of chairperson of the CDF Board of Directors.

Resource mobilisation was a very challenging  enterprise for the CARICOM Development Fund (CDF) over the last year or so given the global financial situation, but the Fund’s Board of Directors remains optimistic that better days are ahead for Member States seeking disbursements.

This was the view shared by Dr. Alison Plummer, chairperson of the CDF Board of Directors, as she spoke at the Third Annual Meeting of the Contributors and Development Partners of the CARICOM Development Fund, which was held in Barbados on Friday, at the Accra Beach Hotel.

“We are at the stage now where we look forward to negotiating with our partners, with you, to make firm decisions on how to advance over the next few years,” she told those contributors and development partners gathered.

“It is no doubt to the fact that resource mobilisation was a very, very, challenging undertaking in 2012.

“Almost every country faced economic challenges in the world. As a result of the economic situation, it made it no easier for us… to channel financing.

“It made it a bit tough for us throughout last year,” Dr. Plummer stated.

“But we are hopeful, because what is happening at the regional level whilst we speak here, concurrently, the CARICOM framework is being analysed and assessed  with the intention of prioritising and redirecting the focus of the community and establishing key priorities based on consensus, through discussions with people.

“And so we are very optimistic that the clear direction, the role of CDF, its optimising work [and] capitalising on the value it brings being the only developmental organ of the Community, will make significant headway and our challenges in the future could be lightened,” Plummer further remarked. (RSM)