More than one-fifth of the world's people live in extreme poverty, on little more than US$1.00 a day. UNDP sees poverty as a complex and multi-dimensional phenomenon, involving people's lack of empowerment, as well as their lack of income and basic services.

UNDP supports programmes that assist governments and organizations of civil society in developing economic and social policies and programmes to address the whole range of factors that contribute to poverty. Among other things, these programmes seek to increase food security; improve the availability and quality of shelter and basic services; generate opportunities for employment and sustainable livelihoods; empower women and men through access to assets and productive resources such as land, credit, technology, training and markets; and enable people to participate in the political forces that shape their lives.

In Jamaica where an estimated 16 per cent of the population falls below the poverty line, UNDP supports the Government of Jamaica in the implementation of the National Poverty Eradication Programme. In this regard, UNDP collaborates with the Government of Jamaica on several levels. In line with the government's commitment to empower communities to play a major role in their own development, UNDP supported a Preparatory Assistance project between 1997 and 1998 which helped to create an enabling environment at the community level for community participation in the planning and implementation of projects aimed at community based developments. Specific elements of the project included:

• Helping the Social Development Commission (SDC) to design and implement a pilot system for integrated community development;

• Supporting a pilot programme to identify and train local leaders in designated communities;

• Sponsoring community based workshops in order to develop a model of integrated community development in accordance with the implementation strategies outlined in the National Poverty Eradication Programme;

• Initiating efforts to identify sustainable income-generating projects in selected communities.

As a follow on from the Preparatory Assistance Project, UNDP is presently collaborating with the government in the development of a full scale project aimed at strengthening income generation in two socially and economically deprived communities in Kingston and St. Mary. Through the development of entrepreneurial skills, the project will create a group of trained and highly motivated individuals who are able to develop sustainable community based micro-enterprises and link these to tourism, manufacturing and the service industry.

In addition to its involvement in the Preparatory Assistance Project outlined above, UNDP has collaborated with the government and several community groups to implement a number of projects specifically geared towards poverty reduction and ultimately its eradication.

Other projects in this area of support are:

Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise Development

In an effort to help modernize Jamaica's productive sector, the UNDP has contributed to the process of assisting the small and medium sized entrepreneurs (SMEs) to launch into the global marketplace. The programme targets companies and groups in both urban and rural areas, with particular emphasis on improving their productivity levels. Key to this process is the provision of supportive services for enhancing the effectiveness of institutional support systems. Support, via computerized databases and design portfolios, is made available through JAMPRO's Productivity Centre and resource centres island wide.

The three main components of the programme are:

Institutional Strengthening

A major output of the programme is to build a supportive technical system for SME's, which responds to their real needs and which engages their full participation. The project also promotes joint learning activities between Jamaican, Regional and International Institutions operating in related areas. In the rural areas, access to services has improved through the creation of a mobile technical unit (Production Train).

Human Resource Development

In keeping with the HRD focus on total quality and continuous improvement, the project has developed training packages which are used to train trainers. To date, over 1500 SME's have been trained using this material. Training packages have been developed for the following topics:
 

• Business Development

• Solar Technology Development

• CAD-CAM Technology Development

• Productive Networks Development

The programme fosters different but complementary networks between the SMEs that combine their resources. This facilitates the generation of new business opportunities by joint action between small and large enterprises, between geographically close rural communities, seeking to increase community living standards through income generation from manufacturing activities.

The SME Programme has contributed to:
 

• the development of interrelated productive networks

• the strengthening of the capacities of national experts, groups, communities and firms to become more effective protagonists of endogenous development, focusing on local resources and institutions.

• the development of "from waste to profit project" which helped the formation of interrelated productive networks in the following value added productive economic activities

            - From Farm to the Table (AGRO PROCESSING)

            - From Garments to Fashion

The JSDNP was established almost three years ago with the mandate to support the process of sustainable development by facilitating improved access to relevant information. The Programme is presently in the process of establishing community information networks whereby rural telecentres become the focal points, not only for accessing information from the Internet, but also harnessing information, from community based persons on current development issues within the respective communities. This information will form the basis of a network of community web sites and will facilitate information sharing and dialogue between communities facing similar challenges.