Civil Society Dialogue highlights best practices and need for more diverse set of indicators for measuring organizational readiness for development funding

Professor Rosalea Hamilton, Chair, Caribbean Philanthropic Alliance, guided the dialogue through topics including addressing barriers to greater civil society partnerships and collaboration with governments and IDPs. Government and development organizations were also able to provide guidance on capacity strengthening priorities for civil society.

In her presentation, Kimberley Marriot-Blake, Executive Director of Jamaica Association for Deaf, encouraged a need for greater understanding – at all levels – of the nuanced needs of the communities serviced in developmental programming especially people living with disabilities.

“We see and hear stories of women and girls, who are deaf, filing reports with the Police and some Stations do not have the capacity to even receive these reports. And too often there’s lack of empathy. There has to be a greater review of the bottlenecks that impact the greater engagement, provision and access to services for people who are deaf,” Marriot-Blake said.

Professor Hamilton highlighted the need for increased collaboration among CSOs themselves.

“When CSOs partner among themselves they have improved capacity and sustain wider reach,” she said, “collaboration with the government should support institutional development of CSOs to better support the national gaps in service provision.”

Vanna Laurence, Programme Manager with the Delegation of the European Union to Jamaica, stressed the importance of civil society partners in meeting developmental goals.

“There will always be a need for civil society actors and the European Union is committed to supporting civil society in reaching people,” she said.