Three groups in St Vincent and the Grenadines will receive a combined total of US$52,640 to carry out various projects over the next two years in UNESCO’s theme areas of culture,{{more}} education natural and human sciences.

The Ministry of Rural Transformation will be working with coconut oil producers in the Sandy Bay and Owia communities to enhance the production of coconut oil. The project hopes to educate producers on techniques and best practices for coconut oil production, build management skills among the producers and supply producers with the basic equipment to increase production and quality.

The issue of climate change and its impact has taken centre stage in international environmental governance. The impact of this phenomenon has been also felt in every village and for this biennium, the Bequia Community High School is hoping to meet these challenges of climate change, through education and sustainable livelihood and development. The project hopes to assist students, with the help of local communities, to apply the scientific data collected to the management and enhancement of their island’s beaches and watersheds – through regular monitoring and measurements.

The St Vincent and the Grenadines Community College will be continuing their programme that was started in 2010, to catalogue medicinal plants in SVG and the extraction and bioassay of the anticancer agents derived from these plants.

UNESCO is not a funding agency. However, its Participation Programme is designed to provide direct assistance to initiatives undertaken by member states in the organization’s fields of competence, in line with priorities determined by the countries themselves, with proposals submitted via UNESCO National Commissions. The funds are modest – up to a maximum of US$25,000 granted for national project requests, with about six projects per country in each biennium.

All these projects should be completed by October 2012.