PRESS RELEASE – THE Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Saint Lucia Office hosted a Regional Solid Waste Management Workshop in Georgetown, Guyana last week Thursday.
The workshop consisted of individuals from the region who participated in JICA’s Sustainable Solid Waste Management and Management of Sustainable Recycling Business training courses in Japan in 2016.
As an output of all JICA training courses, participants formulate a practical action plan towards the end of training in order to solve issues in their countries and undergo the application and implementation of the action plans when they return to their respective countries. It is, therefore, the vision of JICA that participants will contribute to national policies on the related areas of study, develop human resources and spread the new knowledge or techniques learned to the national level.
As such, the first objective of the workshop was to identify challenges with the implementation of current action plans and assist participants in finding ways to address and overcome the challenges. The second objective was to provide participants with information on the support available in the region.
Guest speakers under the Sharing Good Practices session of the workshop included former JICA participants, Walter Narine, Solid Waste Management Director with the Mayor and City Council, Georgetown Municipality, and Terri-Anne La Fon, Manager of the Recycling and Recovery Unit at the Trinidad & Tobago Solid Waste Management Company Limited.
With similar backgrounds and working in similar environments, the guest speakers were able to encourage and motivate the participants by sharing their accomplishments and how they are overcoming the challenges.
Presentations were also delivered by representatives from the Embassy of Japan in Trinidad, the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) and a German Project attached to the CARICOM Secretariat.
The nine participating CARICOM countries included Antigua, Bahamas, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Saint Lucia, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Vincent & the Grenadines and Suriname.