Interactive Online Experience for 2022 Symposium of Best Practices 

Kingston, October 25, 2022

The Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) through its Community Renewal Programme (CRP) in partnership with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the Ministry of National Security (MNS), the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF) and the Social Development Commission (SDC) will host the 7th staging of the Symposium on Best Practices for Social and Community Development. They return to the theme of coordination when they stream live on Wednesday, November 2 from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. featuring an online host which promises an interactive experience.

The theme of the symposium is: Towards Community Renewal – Coherence in Coordination. The keynote speaker is Professor Alexander Kroll, Performance Management Researcher and Consultant and PhD Program Director in the Department of Public Policy and Administration at Florida International University (FIU). He will be supported by Mr. Aubrey Stewart, Doctoral Student and Fulbright Scholar, Florida International University (FIU). At last year’s staging of the symposium where Dr Kroll was a panellist, he highlighted that without cohesion, big ideas do not get implemented and sustained.

Programme Director of the Planning Institute of Jamaica’s Community Renewal Programme, Charles Clayton, noted that the interface with communities during the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated new ways to mobilise and coordinate across a spatially diverse community. “During the hardest periods of the past two years, we saw examples of stakeholders and partners in community development and the social sector doing a better job at coordinating among each other. At this symposium we want to demonstrate what needs to be in place to sustain the energy and coherence in community development. Managing and promoting social cohesion is critical to the achievement of the targets established under Vision 2030 Jamaica and the global agenda,” said Mr Clayton.

Dr Kroll emphasizes the importance of the topic saying, “Collaborations provide great opportunities to address big issues, but there is also usually a potential for conflict. To make the collaboration coherent, there needs to be a bit of top down direction and organisation, but in a way that allows the participation of all stakeholders. People need to stay excited and that is how fresh ideas can be integrated,” he said.
The event, will be streamed live on the Facebook and YouTube pages of the partners: PIOJ, MNS, JSIF, and the SDC.

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