The Social Services Sector got a significant boost yesterday with the IDB’s 50th Anniversary launch at its country offices in Kingston, Jamaica. The Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) signed a technical cooperation agreement with the IDB Lab for US$420,000 and the Combined Disabilities Association (CDA) benefited from a J$500,000 donation from the Bank.
Innovating Social Sector Financing is the focus of the Bank’s technical cooperation agreement with the JSE which aims to direct well needed resources to social services organizations and social enterprises that cater to the poor and underserved.
According to Therese Turner Jones, IDB’s Country Manager for Jamaica and General Manager for the Caribbean Country Group, the initiative seeks to address the challenges faced by these organizations in raising financial resources, which are caused by their limited capacity for business management and/or project management and their inability to quantify and communicate their contribution to potential donors and investors to support their social impact work. “Our plan is to develop an integrated platform for connecting donors and investors. Ultimately, the goal goes well beyond financing to building capacity of these social services organizations to manage projects effectively, while measuring and communicating their results.”
The project is expected to benefit some 150 social services organizations across the island including churches, foundations, non-government organizations and social enterprises many of which are headed by female social entrepreneurs; and 10,000 poor and vulnerable persons are slated to benefit from the programme. The total project budget is US$910,000, of which US$420,000 will be provided by the IDB Lab, the innovative hub of the Bank through the non-reimbursable technical co-operation agreement.
Turner-Jones also congratulated the JSE on being hailed as the world’s best performing stock exchange and its recent landmark migration to the Nasdaq trading platform. “It is fitting that on our 50th anniversary we are continuing the partnership which started back in 2014 when the IDB played a pivotal role with the expansion of the Junior Stock Exchange and now the partnership has further developed to make for an enhanced Social Stock Exchange. We are hoping for the same transformational impact that has been realized by the Junior Stock Exchange for the Social Sector to further the development of Jamaica and benefit the poor and vulnerable in the country.”
Speaking at the signing, Mrs. Marlene Street Forrest, Managing Director stated, “Today is a significant day in the history of the JSSE as we are pleased that we can once again partner with the IDB to bring about meaningful changes to areas of our country which need help and are fundamental to our development and the achievement of our 2030 vision.
Here is a project which we are confident will have significant long-term benefits for social enterprises as they seek to build capacity within their organizations, increase their governance structure, thereby increasing their options for financing their businesses and indeed the social sector ecosystem for social programmes and transparency. This programme is also expected to directly strengthen the JSSE’s own delivery and positively impact all areas of funding access.
Mrs. Street Forrest spoke to the partnership with IDB/ Multilateral Investment Fund before where both organizations worked together in capacity building for the Junior Market. “When we started the Junior Market project, there were 15 companies listed on the Junior Market, today we have 40 companies listed and the future looks bright as more and more companies seek to access funding via the Junior Market. This shows when two powerful brands partner together for growth and development, the possibilities are endless. Therefore, this is another excellent means of us collaborating together once more to ensure that the social sector is not left behind. This collaborative effort between the MIF which started earlier this year will see the Exchange executing on a number of areas to:
- Enhance the Management Skills and Sustainability of Social Entities;
- Improve the Systems, Processes and Tools for Impact measurement;
- Raise Awareness and Stakeholder Engagement and
- Document, systematize and disseminate the experience knowledge and lessons we will learn in the process of executing this project.
Combined Disabilities Association benefits from $500k donation
To further promote inclusion, the Combined Disabilities Association benefited from a $500,000 donation to assist with the medical needs of some of its constituents. Turner-Jones explained that this community is often overlooked and that the Bank was doing research across the region to see how best it could make enhanced targeted interventions to further assist the sector.
Turner-Jones explained that the IDB country strategy over the years has always been fully aligned with the Government’s own development agenda. Currently, the focus is to tackle constraints on economic growth and contribute to poverty reduction, with a focus on three overarching objectives: (i) improving public sector management; (ii) increasing productivity and growth; and, (iii) reinforcing human capital development. This strategy also fully integrates crime, resilience to climate shocks, and gender equality as cross-cutting areas.
The IDB is currently providing support to the people of Jamaica in several areas, as reflected by a portfolio of over US$730 million in financial support (end-2018), including for infrastructure and basic services, healthcare, citizen security and justice, social protection, financial sector development and inclusion, skills development, and—importantly—public sector transformation.