Public sector employees are being exposed to more international training programmes

Georgetown: Cabinet has approved the attendance of Colonel (Retired) Chabilall Ramsarup Director General of the Civil Defence Commission (CDC) at the Global platform for Disaster Risk Reduction.

This was disclosed today, by the Minister of State Joseph Harmon during a post-Cabinet media briefing at the Ministry of Presidency.

The State Minister explained that the global platform will be hosted by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction which will provide the international community its first opportunity to review the global process in the implementation of the Sendai Life Framework adopted in Japan in 2015.

The Sendai Framework is a 15-year voluntary, non-binding agreement which recognises that the State has the primary role to reduce disaster risk however; the responsibility should be shared with other stakeholders that include local government, private sector and other stakeholders. It aims to achieve substantial reduction of disaster risk and loss of lives, livelihoods and health and in the economic, physical, social, cultural and environmental assets of persons, businesses, communities and countries.

The global platform will be held in Cancun, Mexico from May 22-26.

Minister Harmon said that Cabinet also granted approval for the attendance of a legal officer of the Child Care Protection Agency within the Ministry of Social Protection at a training programme on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The Minister explained that the convention will be hosted by the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights which, “seeks to raise awareness among the Caribbean government officials about the convention on the rights of persons with disabilities”.  This convention will be held in Trinidad and Tobago from May 1 to 4.

Additionally, Cabinet the attendance of National Science Coordinator of NCERD Petal Punalall-Jetoo at a Science, Technology and Innovation conference in the Caribbean scheduled to be held in Trinidad and Tobago from May 3-4.

The conference seeks to identify strategies to strengthen cooperation which allows science, technology and innovation to be used more effectively to promote socio-economic development within the Caribbean.

Cabinet also gave its approval for a number of officers from the Ministry of Finance to attend a two-week programme on Monitoring and Evaluation of development programmes which will be held at Duke University, North Carolina from June 11 to 23, 2017.

The Minister said that the programme will provide capacity building for those who manage development programmes. This programme will also enhance the capacity within the project cycle management division along with the Budget Office of the Ministry of Finance to plan and monitor public sector development projects.