main stakeholders of the programme and offered an additional opportunity to discuss the results and recommendations contained in this report. Evaluation limitations. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic travel restrictions and public health protocols, the ICPE team was unable to travel to the country, which prevented observation of project sites and direct interaction with certain beneficiary groups. The team was forced to carry out the evaluation in its entirety in a virtual manner, with interviews done via the Zoom platform. As it was not possible to visit any project sites and organize focus group meetings with beneficiaries, the evaluation depended on project reports and other documents, videos and stakeholder interviews to triangulate the reported results. The 2020 general election in Jamaica, held in September, resulted in transition arrangements at key ministries and government agencies, which was the priority for stakeholders. For the evaluation, this resulted in a protracted period of interviewing to ensure that the most appropriate people were interviewed. Although the evaluation was able to interview most of the key stakeholders, a number of meetings could not be secured, including meetings with important stakeholders from the government and private sector on issues related to anti-trafficking, migration and gender equality, among others. Another limitation related to the quality of the country programme results and resources framework indicators, baseline and targets, and monitoring. To mitigate these limitations, the evaluation team followed up with MCO colleagues and partners by email to obtain more information and access a number of studies and reports, allowing it to draw on additional secondary data and to link results to outputs and outcomes. 7 8 9
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1.3 Country context Jamaica is a highly indebted, upper middleincome small island developing state. Located in the Caribbean with a multi-ethnic population of almost 2.9 million, Jamaica’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) annual growth rate has been rising slowly, averaging 1.9 percent, with GDP per capita reaching US$5,354.2 in 2018.7 After significant fiscal consolidation, the public debt fell from 115 percent of GDP in 2017/18 (145 percent in 2012) to 96 percent of GDP in 2018/19,8 but Jamaica remains one of the world’s most indebted countries. Jamaica depends heavily on tourism and remittances, which are equal to about 20 percent and 15 percent of GDP, respectively.9 The Official Development Assistance (ODA) of Jamaica, which recorded $58 million in 2017, represents less than 1 percent of the state budget, and less than 0.2 percent of Jamaica’s GDP.10 Notwithstanding the high human development categorization, Jamaica needs stronger and more resilient economic growth to eliminate poverty and boost shared prosperity. Jamaica’s Human Development Index value evolved from 0.726 in 2018 to 0.734 in 2020,11 positioning the country at 101 out of 189 countries and territories, and in the high human development category. Inequality in Jamaica is lower than in most countries in the Latin America and Caribbean region, but poverty at 19 percent in 2017 is still significant.12 Jamaica was within the medium-high classification of economic and social vulnerability to external shocks in 2017.13 The integrated National Policy on Poverty and the National Poverty Reduction Programme 2017, which are linked to the Vision 2030 Jamaica and Jamaica Social Protection Strategy 2014, aim to eradicate extreme poverty by 2022 and reduce the
World Bank Open Data. ROAR (2019); A Roadmap for SDG Implementation in Jamaica, Government of Jamaica (2017). Mooney, Henry and Schmid, Juan Pedro, Country Department Caribbean Group, Interamerican Development Bank (2018) Development Challenges in Jamaica, Policy Brief No.IDB-PB-278. UNDP (2018) Towards Jamaica’s Sustainable Development Goals by 2030; OECD Development Aid at a Glance (Aid at a glance charts – OECD). http://hdr.undp.org/en/countries/profiles/JAM World Bank, Jamaica Country Overview https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/jamaica/overview Measuring Vulnerability – A Multidimensional Vulnerability Index for the Caribbean. Caribbean Development Bank Working Paper No. 2019/01. https://www.caribank.org/sites/default/files/publication-resources/Measuring%20Vulnerability-A%20Multidimensional%20 Vulnerability%20Index%20for%20the%20Caribbean.pdf.
INDEPENDENT COUNTRY PROGRAMME EVALUATION: JAMAICA
