Communications campaign to also commence
The National Development Program (NDP) of country Sint Maarten continues to move forward with the official kick-off of the Community Based Dialogues (CBD) to the general public on Thursday evening.
This part of the NDP trajectory will be presented by the Prime Minister Hon. Sarah Wescot-Williams on Thursday, March 27 at the University of St. Martin (USM) starting at 6.45pm.
In addition, the official communications campaign will also commence which is a collaborative effort of public relations/marketing firm IMBRACE and the NDP Work Group. The Ministry of General Affairs, Department of Interior and Kingdom Relations (BAK) are providing key support for the NDP process along with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).
There will be 20 community based dialogues; five focused group dialogues, and four thematic dialogues and one validation conference.
The first five dialogues are scheduled as follows: Simpson Bay, March 31; Cole Bay, April 1; Guana Bay, April 2; St. Peter, April 3; and Dutch Quarter, April 4. The venues and times will be announced in the Government Information Page (GIP) during the course of the week.
During the Thursday evening kick-off, the ‘look and feel’ of the NDP process will be introduced to the community along with a handbook that will be handed over to the NDP Work Group.
The handbook offers guidance and direction when the dialogue champions start to engage society in the format of community dialogues.
The handbook provides the basis for public debate with respect to the core concepts of the Sint Maarten nation building process. Dr. Francio Guadeloupe, Dean at USM contributed to the NDP program and is author of the booklet.
Dialogue Champions are people who have enthusiastically accepted the challenge of working collectively and together in planning, convening, organizing and writing the country’s NDP.
The Dialogue Champions come from different professional backgrounds in civil society, government departments and private sector organizations.
The NDP is facilitated under the auspices of the project, "Building a Nation: Sint Maarten National Development Plan & Institutional Strengthening."
For further information please refer to: na*****************@si************.org, and/ or call 542-0897.