Jamaica's National Anthem is a beautiful, heartfelt poem and a prayer, officially adopted in 1962, the year of the island's independence. It is also a supplication, a wish, a yearning for a just, respectful, orderly, compassionate society. What have we now?
"Give us vision lest we perish"
Recently, a group of us was battling to create a Vision Statement (and a Mission Statement) for the entity that we are involved with. For anyone who has participated in this exercise, it is not a simple task. Words - the right words - are of course important. But there has to be real meaning behind them - not a "word salad," to use a current phrase. All these words, put together into one very short paragraph or sentence, have to create a coherent and cohesive whole - one that makes sense to everyone, so that when they read it they say "Ah, that's it! I understand what these people are all about." It's tricky, because above all, we want other people to buy into it.
So it is with vision. It's truly worth the effort of creating one and putting it down on paper; but it's even more important to live up to it; to immerse oneself in it, so that it becomes part of what you are, and say, and do; and to communicate it to others.
A vision is obviously a broad view, encompassing past, present, and future. As for Jamaica's vision: Where have we reached? Where are we now? Where do we want to go?
We often quote this phrase: "Jamaica, the place of choice..."
Recently, Prime Minister Andrew Holness conceded that Jamaica will not be able to achieve its Vision 2030 goals, which were intended to lead us to "Developed Nation" status. Vision 2030 was established in 2009. Indeed, the goals were extremely ambitious; but then, so are the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), to which Vision 2030 is closely linked. However, one must aim high, in order to create some sense of urgency, on social, economic, and environmental goals. Neither Vision 2030 nor the SDGs are watered-down, easy targets.
The Prime Minister, who has recently returned from the UN General Assembly meeting in New York, spoke to a Jamaican audience this week in the rural community of Spicy Grove, St. Mary. He made many pledges (yes, elections are in the air!) He informed the audience that "Jamaica is the leading country in the Caribbean for meeting the [SDG] goals, based upon our National Development Plan." The livestream can be reviewed here.
The Plan he referred to is, in fact, Vision 2030, which you could describe as a Vision plus Mission Statement - that is, goals, and how we were to achieve them. "Jamaica is doing much better than the rest of the world," the Prime Minister asserted, despite setbacks; of course, COVID struck (and COVID struck the rest of the world, too); however, aren't we in the same boat with other countries? Are we really "much better"?
The Prime Minister's comment on being the Caribbean leader on SDGs was not quite accurate. Actually, Jamaica is the leading country in the English-speaking Caribbean. If you look at the SDG rankings, it is actually fourth in the region - after Cuba and Dominican Republic, and Jamaica is just behind Suriname. A number of the smaller English-speaking islands are not included in the rankings, by the way.
The Prime Minister also said that Jamaica has achieved some sixty percent of the SDGs already (that is the Index score); however, according to a simple graph on the UN country profile on Jamaica (see below), 40 percent of these are making "limited progress," 31.9 percent are "worsening," and only 27.5 percent are achieved or on track. We are "stagnant" on eight of the goals, and declining on three: Zero Hunger; Quality Education (an issue that the UN describes as "of grave concern" globally; and Responsible Production and Consumption. The others are showing moderate improvement, and only "Partnerships for the Goals" is pointing up and on track. It's a bit more complicated than it seems, and not very rosy.
There is no information on one of the goals - Reduced Inequalities. I am not sure why. You can see all this on Jamaica's country profile and you can drill down on a lot of detail on each goal and the indicators that show we would have achieved them. If you click on each goal, it will tell you how Jamaica is doing, and what the challenges, achievements, and opportunities are on each one.
However, as the Prime Minister pointed out, the rest of the world is not doing too well either. Back in June of this year, the UN's SDG Report noted that only 17 percent of the goals were on track, with "nearly half showing minimal or moderate progress, and over one-third stalled or regressing." This roughly coincides with Jamaica's own progress, or lack of it. While there are quite a few silver linings amidst the gloom and doom, obviously a much more concerted effort is required globally. While the Prime Minister asked for help from the global community at the United Nations in achieving the SDGs - yes, we always have to get out that "begging bowl" - we have to play our part, and perhaps at least try to adhere to the languishing Vision 2030. As with the rest of the world, climate change, security issues and growing inequality remain enormous challenges for us. But we must press on.
So, as we struggle along with the SDGs, it seems Vision 2030 is on life support; some economists seem to feel we were never going to achieve it anyway. While we may say we are 60 percent on track with the SDGs, the remaining 40 percent (to be achieved in just six years' time) needs a great deal of work.
Vision 2030 is fading, but surely - something can be salvaged. For the next several months at least, this administration will be 90 percent preoccupied with winning the next general elections. So, more time that could be devoted to Jamaica's future will be wasted in petty politicking.
There are too many distractions: too much partisan bickering between the two political parties; too much trivia for our local media to latch onto, point-scoring, finger-pointing. The growing divisiveness in our society does not encourage a sense of unity of purpose. Unity is what we truly need if we are to achieve Vision 2030 and the SDGs.
We need that broad view of the past, present, and future, now more than ever, even if we have to adjust it to current global, regional and local realities. Let's be disciplined; let's focus.
Bring back the vision!
No comments:
Post a Comment