The Banana Accompanying Measures (BAM) initiative has been identified as one area in which the government of St Vincent and the Grenadines, the European Union and the UWI-based Caribbean Centre for Competitiveness can collaborate.{{more}}

Executive director of the Caribbean Centre for Competitiveness Indera Sagewan Alli says the government of SVG, as part of the Banana Accompanying Measures, has identified five agricultural commodities to benefit from Value Chain Analysis.

The commodities are poultry, “Fair trade” bananas, small ruminants, fresh fruits & vegetables and swine production.

The CCfC leader said researchers at the Caribbean Centre for Competitiveness are collating all the research/studies available on these commodities so that the Centre can start by identifying the information gaps which might exist, but which would be important to carrying out proper value chain mapping.

Sagewan Alli says the Caribbean Centre for Competitiveness has trained academics and public sector technocrats from St Vincent and the Grenadines in areas such as Cluster Mapping and Global Value Chain Analysis at the Centre’s expense. CCfC last week (June 24-28) sponsored two Vincentians in its Innovation workshop, facilitated by UNU-Merit.

Sagewan Alli says the European Union has met with the CCfC and is impressed by the approach of the Caribbean Centre for Competitiveness.

Indera Sagewan Alli’s visit to St Vincent and the Grenadines to meet with agricultural stakeholders runs from July 1 to 3.

The organisation’s primary function is to build regional technical capacity in competitiveness related methodologies for the purpose of working with regional governments and the private sector in their diversification/sustainability efforts.

“Having analysed the Competitiveness tools available, CCfC has concentrated on Clustering, Global Value Chain Analysis and Innovation; as they are inextricably linked together. Moreover, these are ‘applied’ research techniques, involving all key stakeholders in the entirety of the process from training to research and analysis to strategy development to implementation; which, for the CCfC, is what is required to address our countries’ development challenges,” a release said.

The CCfC has also trained and continues to train regional academics/public sector technocrats from across the region.

The release said those participants trained by CCfC have utilized their training in using tools to do post workshop practicums; actual cluster mapping and value chain analysis of selected sectors at country level.

“The Centre is now ready to do what it had been preparing itself for; using regional experts with home-grown knowledge of our countries to work with governments of the region to build and implement competitiveness strategy in the real sectors.

“The region needs to aggressively move beyond talking about our problems to building competitive implementation strategies to convert potential opportunities into real jobs, revenue generation and national growth.

“This cannot be done in a vacuum but must be informed by robust analysis of what comparative and competitiveness advantages exists (Cluster Mapping) and this contextualised in a global value chain analysis for the purpose of building development strategies. To move from plan to results there must be a built- in management function of the process detailed on a time line of execution. Most important, the entire process must be executed by trained persons in the country itself, thus the process must involve training in these techniques. This is the only way to ensure the long term sustainability of development and is in fact a tested and proven approach in some of the world’s most competitive nations,” the release said.