PHILIPSBURG:--- Wednesday June 5, seven members of the Soualiga Social Movement met at the department of BAK (Dept. of the Interior and Kingdom relation) with representatives of the Team for National Development Andrea Ortega-Oudhoff and Joeri Arion to give feedback on the development of the NDP working group.
The Team for National Development has been inviting foundations and different sectors of the society to the table to get their feedback on how to best engage them in a dialogue process which would be directly used to create the National Vision and Development Plan (NDP). Soon a workgroup of committed individuals will be trained and then given the task to strategize and execute the gathering of the data while presenting their findings to a steering committee. The steering committee will be made up of representatives of the public, private and civil sector and will be responsible to monitor and evaluate the implementation of the National Development Plan. The steering committee has to ensure that the National Development Plan becomes a plan that all subsequent governments must consider when executing any other plans in the future of this nation.
After a short introduction, members of the SSM got right to work, suggesting that the NDP Work Group needs to market to the public what the NDP is about and encourage the entire community to get involved. It was also made clear that holding general public meetings is highly likely to be attended by the same 20-40 people each time, as some people in our society do not have transportation to travel at night and people tend to not show interest in projects unless it is going on in their backyard. Both parties agreed that ensuring that the people of St. Maarten develop a sense of ownership of this National Development Plan, would be imperative and in so doing the plan will be taken to the people.
The SSM suggested that the NDP Work Group would have to go into each community and hold several meetings to gather data from the people on the four focus areas which are divided as Economy, Infrastructure and Environment, Culture and Social and Human Development. Modern technological gateways should also be created to accept dialogue from the community on their views about certain subjects, asking questions like how do you see St. Maarten developing, how would you want it to be developed in different areas?
Just about all members of the Soualiga Social Movement are interested in joining the NDP workgroup and would like to encourage all Foundations and the general public to get involved and have their voice heard when the opportunity presents itself. To find out how you can participate in the National Development Plan work group please contact the Team for National Development by email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call +1721 542 08 97.